Bois-de-l'Île-Bizard Nature Park is a large nature park in the

L'Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève L'Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève () is a borough (''arrondissement'') of the city of Montreal. History On 24 October 1678, the government of Louis de Buade de Frontenac granted Île Bizard, then named Île Bonaventure as a seigniory to Jacques ...

borough of

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The nature park is in the east-central part of Île Bizard. Almost all of the area is located in the interior of the island, linking the

Lake of Two Mountains Lake of Two Mountains (French: ''Lac des Deux Montagnes'') is part of the river delta widening of the Ottawa River in Quebec, Canada, at its confluence with the St. Lawrence River. Lake of Two Mountains has four outflows: Rivière des Mille Île ...

and the

Rivière des Prairies The Rivière des Prairies (; ), called the Back River in English, is a delta channel of the Ottawa River in southwestern Quebec, Canada. The Kanien'kehá:ka called it ''Skowanoti'', meaning "River behind the island". The river separates the citi ...

. Pointe-aux-Carrières is the largest of the three coastal locations. It is the location of the park's welcome centre.

History

In 1678,

Jacques Bizard Jacques Bizard (1642 – December 5, 1692) was seigneur of île Bonaventure, later renamed île-Bizard. Born in Benaix, Neuchâtel to a Calvinist pastor, Bizard served in the Venetian army where he met Louis de Buade, better known as Comte de Fro ...

received the right to Île Bizard which at the time was named after

Bonaventure Bonaventure ( ; it, Bonaventura ; la, Bonaventura de Balneoregio; 1221 – 15 July 1274), born Giovanni di Fidanza, was an Italian Catholic Franciscan, bishop, cardinal, scholastic theologian and philosopher. The seventh Minister G ...

. The

seigneury ''Seigneur'' is an originally feudal title in France before the Revolution, in New France and British North America until 1854, and in the Channel Islands to this day. A seigneur refers to the person or collective who owned a ''seigneurie'' (or ...

of Bizard remained the property of this family until the British Conquest. It was then held by Montreal merchant Pierre Foretier and his heirs. Île Bizard began to be populated in the second half of the eighteenth century. The area of the Bois-de-l'Île-Bizard Nature Park was probably not been subject to residential development because of its marshy soil and the presence of

quarries A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their environ ...

nearby. The Bois-de-l'Île-Bizard Nature Park is an area of historical interest. The site was used for a

harbour A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is a ...

, quarries and

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shel ...

es. The park is visible to navigators on the

, and served as a stopover for many boats. The bay of Pointe-aux-Carrières offered a place where wooden cages could be detached prior to descending the Lalement rapids at the entrance of the

. In the first half of the nineteenth century this site was also a place of extraction and shipping of stone. The name Pointe-aux-Carrières refers not only to the quarry on this site but also to the quarries on the other side of the main road in the interior of the park. Stones from the quarries were used in the construction of houses on the island. In the 1930s, the owner of the area, the Roussin-Cardinal family landscape the Pointe-aux-Carrières into a beach picnic ground. The beach was abandoned in the 1960s, probably because of the pollution of the Lake of Two Mountains. The beach has since been reopened. Today the park is home to a diverse range of ecosystems.

Future

As of 2020, the City of Montreal has a plan to include the park into the future

Grand Parc de L’Ouest Grand Parc de L'Ouest is a planned park along the north shore of the western part of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The plan is to combine the following into one large park: * L'Anse-à-l'Orme Nature Park * Bois-de-l'Île-Bizard Nature Park * Bois-d ...

References

External links

* (Montreal's Nature Parks) {{DEFAULTSORT:Bois-de-l'Ile-Bizard Nature Park Parks in Montreal L'Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève