How 1950s moralizing is still impacting Mount Royal's trees

Earlier this week it was announced that 4,000 ashtrees will be felled on Mount Royal Park because of an invasive species eating away at them but this may not have been necessaryif it weren't for mid-20th century morality.

Huge swaths of the mountain were felled 60 years ago because Montrealers didn't like the idea of what people were up to in the brush.

According to the 1988 book La montagne en question: "In 1954, citizens and the press openly denounced the presence, in Mount Royal Park, of undesirable individuals, 'perverts and alcoholics.'"

"A campaign was launched to clean up the 'jungle' and make the mountain safer for women and children."

The solution, according to then-mayor Jean Drapeau, was to clear trees and bushes from the park.

"Under the influence of the church, the mayor in the 50s did some profound felling of trees and underbrush in order to make it impossible to hide," said Hlne Panaoti, spokesperson for Les Amis de la montagne.

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While secret lovers and other benefactors of the woodland may have been disappointed by the move, the disappointment has been more far-reaching than that.

"It had a terrible impact on Mount Royal and it left whole areas exposed to the proliferation of invasive species," Panaoti said.

The name "bald mountain" stuck for years and because of it, there was plenty of space for new trees to grow perhaps disproportionately.

Ash trees may have taken advantage of the space and grown more quickly than other trees, Panaoti said.

5,000 cut in late 1990s

Although losing 4,000 trees may seem devastating for people who love the mountain, Panaoti wants Montrealers to remember that only 20 years ago it endured worse.

During the 1998 ice storm, 86,000 trees were damaged and 5,000 were felled.

"We survived the ice storm, we will survive this," Panaoti said.

"We make mistakes and we learn and the important thing is to understand our forest, our ecosystem and make sure the right decisions are made," she said.

• Looking back on the 1998 ice storm 20 years later