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The City of Montreal is telling residents to stay away from the popular woodland in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, but people working to protect the tiny forest say it is safe and its official closure is an overreaction.

On Tuesday, notices were sent to residents of St-Raymond’s southern NDG neighborhood informing them that access to the cliff area known as Falaise St-Jacques was prohibited for security reasons.

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However, between Highway 20 and St-Jacques St. at the southern end of NDG. People who use and maintain the trails along a narrow strip of forest along a hillside wedged between railroad tracks between 1999 and 1996 say they see no risk.

“I feel safer here than I do walking down the street in the city,” said Chris Breier, a volunteer who has been maintaining forest roads for about three years.

Breier said that there was a landslide in the westernmost part of the forest area during the heavy rain in August, adding that he hung a safety tape around the area where the landslide occurred and reported the situation to the municipality.

People can be trusted to use common sense and stay out of the woods during major events. weather Breier, who spends about five days a week in the area, said he works to maintain the road, clear dead trees and otherwise keep Falaise safe and accessible, events that often cause trees to fall and can contribute to mudslides.

“I would hate to see all my work and the hundreds of people I meet along the way every week who have gained great benefits from this path, I would just hate to see it completely closed down,” he said.

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City spokeswoman Camille Bégin said in an email referencing the landslide in August that the notice sent to residents was meant as a reminder that the park is not open to the public.

“Following an assessment of soil stability risks, we had to restrict access to Falaise St-Jacques to ensure public safety,” he said, adding that signs would be installed to limit access and warn people of landslide risks. In “strategic places” on an area of ​​30 hectares.

The multi-use trail, located on the other side of a small channel at the bottom of the cliff, remains open and is not affected by the closure, Bégin said.

He said the city hopes to build a larger nature park that would include Falaise as well as a former train station on the other side of the highway, and has budgeted $62.7 million as part of the plan. “The aim is to preserve the biodiversity of Falaise and integrate it into this large park.”

city ​​in 2022 and 2023 St-Jacques St. Bought property during with create a login To the now closed area of ​​Falaise.

No signs were posted Wednesday afternoon telling people the area was closed. The gates of the multi-use path to the path along the cliff were open, and the popular but unofficial entrance to the cliff section had a sign warning of falling rocks.

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Many people walking in the area told The Gazette they were unaware that access to the cliff was prohibited.

David Gamper is one of the coordinators of the Sauvons la Falaise group. helped preserve the forestHe said he received positive signs for the larger park when the city purchased the land a year ago, invited members of the group to join an advisory committee, and officials are talking about preparing a plan before the end of this year.

“The whole emphasis was on opening it up,” he said. “We were encouraged at that point that the city would stop benevolently neglecting Falaise and welcome people to the park.”

It’s unclear where those plans stand now, he said, and there’s no sign Falaise will reopen in the near future.

Gamper, who met with city officials last month and another meeting is scheduled for December, said he had seen the city’s cliff-edge soil condition report.

“It appears that the solidity of the soil is not what it should be for a park. We understand this, but we do not think it is a huge risk,” he said.

Gamper said he believes the danger is localized not along the main road through the forest, which sits on a broad ledge, but in the steep areas below where businesses along St-Jacques are shedding snow.

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“From our point of view, this is not a really dangerous situation and does not justify the closure of the entire Falaise,” said Gamper, who believes that remedial measures should only be taken where necessary.

Lisa Mintz, managing director of UrbaNature Education, which runs educational programs in Falaise, said she doesn’t think Falaise is more dangerous now than it has been at any point in the last 10 years.

Mintz, who founded Sauvons la Falaise but no longer runs the organization, said banning access to the forest would have an impact on a low-income area that is home to many new immigrants and members of racial minorities.

“This is unconscionable because this is the only green space for the people living around Falaise. They usually don’t have cars; “There are no ways to get to places like this,” he said.

Mintz questioned the city’s commitment to preserving the area and said the real problem is the dumping of trash at the top of the cliff by businesses.

“They basically want us to stop doing anything in Falaise and I don’t understand why,” he said. “Instead of doing something to stop the people who dump illegal waste and cause this erosion, they put the blame on us.”

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