As we noted in our post yesterday, Notre Dame is about to start construction on McCarthy Stadium. They plan to begin with “tree work” this week, raising concerns about what this might mean for the Lombardy poplars and any birds that might be nesting there.
We wrote the school about these concerns. Here’s their response:
With regards to the status of the existing trees, which are addressed within our Building Permits and requirements, our landscape architects have a registered biologist currently conducting a review of the existing trees to be removed to confirm if there are any birds currently nesting in the trees. This is a provincial requirement based on the Wildlife Act and is standard throughout BC for construction happening on treed sites between the months of March and August. There are a range of requirements that need to be met to consider a nest “active” and the biologist assesses the trees for these requirements. If nesting is present the biologist will provide guidelines for how to treat the nest and what timelines are required to ensure the Act is met. There are strict protocols that we have to follow and these are being adhered to.
Notre Dame Community Relations – 8 June 2020
We can only hope that their registered biologist is thorough and that the strict protocols will indeed be followed. If you see any nesting activity, please comment here or email us at notredameneighbours@gmail.com.
In the meantime, take a few moments to enjoy the Kaslo Street poplar trees while you can.
Notre Dame Neighbours 
Thanks June for keeping an eye, literally, on the trees and your action in drawing attention to the birds who may live there. Thankfully we have the Wildlife Act which must be adhered to. Fingers crossed.
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Terrific that we can at least slow down the rush to put young people bashing heads together in the so called “football” sport of the Americas. Let’s hope there are a lot of nesting birds.
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