St. Albert is the home of a wonderful forest. A rare, urban first-growth white spruce forest called the Grey Nuns White Spruce Park falls on the western limits of the city near Ray Gibbon Drive and McKenney Avenue.
The forest is home to a diverse selection of wildlife from reptiles and amphibians such as red-sided garter snakes and boreal toads to mammals such as short-tailed weasels and snowshoe hares with over 170 species of birds being reported in the park in the last three years on the citizen science project, eBird. It is also home to trees up to 160 years old. This forest is one of the only first-growth white spruce forests that is found within urban limits in all of North America.
In 2011, The city classified the forest as a Municipal Historic Resource which according to Alberta’s Historical Resources Act, protects historic resources from demolition or alterations that take away from their heritage value. The city also developed a management plan in 2014 with the goal of managing the park for the health of the forest, the people using the park, and the educational and awareness resources the park provides. Many threats are addressed in the management plan and are being managed with varying success but there is one glaring omission from the plan, anthropogenic (human created) noise.
A twinned highway and a shopping centre are both being built that will threaten the park through anthropogenic noise. There is a large amount of evidence suggesting that anthropogenic noise impacts birds and amphibians and it is crucial that we take this into account when conserving habitat. If we ignore this type of pollution we will either reduce the amount of wildlife in the park or reduce the success and fitness of the species that currently live in the park. This will have a negative impact on the biodiversity of the park and alter its value as a heritage site and its value to the community.
The Grey Nuns White Spruce Park is a rare treasure that St. Albert has already recognized it needs to protect. We must take proactive steps now to ensure that the risks to the forest are stopped and the forest thrives for many years to come.
St. Albert needs to amend its management plan of the Grey Nuns White Spruce Park to include a maximum sound level of 50 db. This is the guideline set out by Environment Canada and is required to protect the wildlife of this park.
We need to bring attention to this issue. To sign a petition to amend the management plan visit: tinyurl.com/spruceparkpetition. The more local signatures we get, the more impact it will have.
Jill and Scott Tansowny, St. Albert
