The Liberals have jumped in to save a one-inch frog under threat at the site of development in a Montreal suburb, says Blacklock’s Reporter..The order under the Species At Risk Act also forbids tree pruning, off-road bicycling and “maintenance work on any infrastructure” under threat of $50,000 fines..“The Emergency Order follows a threat assessment by the department based on the best available information including the most recent science,” the Environment department wrote in a notice..The order covers 49 acres of suburban Longueuil, Que. across the St. Lawrence River from Montréal..The area is home to the endangered Western Chorus Frog..“The protection of this particular Western Chorus Frog population in Longueuil is important to the species’ overall survival and recovery,” wrote staff..“The Longueuil population is the third-largest in Québec.”.Western Chorus Frogs are native to the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River area. The tiny frogs’ population is not known, but environmental groups estimate declines of 37% in Québec and 43% in Ontario in the past decade..The Emergency Order that took effect Monday states residents must not “dig, remove, compact or plow the soil, remove, prune, mow, destroy or introduce any vegetation such as a tree, shrub or plant, alter surface water in any manner, install or construct or perform any maintenance on any infrastructure,” use ATVs or bicycles “anywhere other than on a road or paved path” or use fertilizers, herbicides or insecticides..A similar federal ban under the Species At Risk Act blocked development of a $22.3 million subdivision in La Prairie, Que., resulting in years of litigation. The Federal Court of Appeal in 2020 ruled federal orders did apply to private lands and those property owners had no automatic right to compensation..In the La Prairie case, local authorities in 2008 issued permits to drain a swamp to make way for a subdivision. Work halted three years later after environmental groups petitioned to save the frogs’ habitat..“Suburban sprawl and changes in farming practices are contributing to the ongoing destruction of Western Chorus Frog habitats and are thereby threatening the species’ survival in Canada,” Federal Court Justice Luc Martineau wrote in 2015.
