La forêt qui marche (the walking forest) is a non-profit organization (NPO) whose mission is to recover and give value to the native trees, shrubs and plants located on land otherwise slated for deforestation during infrastructure or housing development projects in the Eastern Townships. Launched in May of 2021, the organization’s main objectives are to save as many of these plants as possible and to improve awareness of their importance and uses among members of the general public, as well as in public and private facilities.
Over the course of its first year in operation La forêt qui marche engaged in six different projects in developments across the city of Sherbrooke, transplanting over 800 native trees, shrubs and plants in the process.
With the freezing of the ground, the organization’s transplanting activities are officially on pause until next spring, but in the meantime, a new program focused on forest mulch has been launched in partnership with the Jardin Eden plant nursery in Rock Forest.
While not the same as the base mission of saving local plants from deforestation, the mulch concept was developed by the organization in order to prevent vegetation torn up by deforestation of development land from being buried or wasted.
“The reclamation of trees and shrubs in the form of forest mulch is the norm today in the United States, but is slow to take hold here,” explained René Desrosiers, Vice-President of La forêt qui marche and instigator of the initiative.
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