Some of the small trees beside the field in this view are White Elm aka American Elm (Ulmus americana). People in Quebec (and much of North America) were very fond of this species, so that nearly every field had at least a few large elms. But Dutch Elm Disease (DED) arrived in Quebec by 1944, and over the next 50 years almost all mature specimens died. Fortunately, White Elm produces seed at a young age. Even in the presence of disease, enough trees live long enough to reproduce and so saplings such as these are fairly common. But the days of whole streets and parks shaded by huge elms are over except in parts of the southern USA (where DED doesn't seem to be too bad) and cities outside the native range which have not yet seen DED. Join discussion...

The same view just after the ice storm of January 1998 can be seen at http://www.chamblycounty.com/Page31B.html over the caption "Rue D'Alsace - not a single tree was left undamaged." Join discussion...

This building housed Chambly County High School (the first English-language high school in Montreal's "South Shore" suburbs) starting in 1954. The merger with Penfield Academy happened in 1999. Head north along Rue Green to see the gym/library complex under construction in May 2009. Join discussion...

Large tracts of Ile-Perrot remained in forest for many generations because the land was much too rocky to be farmed. It was none too easy to build roads and houses on, either. Sugar maple, beech, oak, ash, birch and basswood shaded a great variety of wildflowers -- lilies, trilliums, violets, Solomon's seal, sarsaparilla, cucumberroot, blue cohosh. But even the toughest bedrock yields readily to present-day machinery and as a result Ile-Perrot's forests are being razed. Join discussion...