1. Urgence Conservation: The involvement of the Montréal Botanical Garden in the safeguarding of Quebec’s plant heritage
2. IUCN-SSC Plant Committee Gathers in Eastern Ontario
3. CITES CoP14 Plants Results
4. Plants for life: medicinal plant conservation and botanic gardens
5. Adopt-a-Plant
6. Review of the First Conference on Phyto-Engineering in Québec

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6. Review of the First Conference on Phyto-Engineering in Quebec, Jacques Brisson, University of Montréal

(1st Phyto-Engineering Conference in Quebec)

Green roofs, plant barriers, marsh filters and other Phyto-Technologies have made great strides in Quebec in recent years. On June 18th, the first conference on Phyto-Engineering in Quebec, organized by l’Institut de recherche en biologie végétale (the Plant Biology Research Institute), was held at the Henry-Teuscher Auditorium at the Montreal Botanical Garden. This conference had as its main goal to give a progress report on the use of plants as an alternative to traditional technologies, with the goal of improving environmental quality. More than 200 participants came to listen to the various experts discuss the principles of operation, the state of current research, and the achievements made in Quebec in Phyto-Engineering. After the welcome by Gilles Vincent, Director of the Botanical Garden, Marie-Anne Boivin (Sopranature) and Owen A. Rose (Provencher, Roy & Ass., Urban Ecology Centre) displayed applications of green roofs found in Quebec and elsewhere in the world. Afterwards, Michel Labrecque (IRBV, Montreal Botanical Garden) demonstrated the potential use of willows for ground decontamination purposes through Phyto-Remediation. To end the morning, Pascal Bigras (Quebec Nature-Action) explained the various stages of plant use for ground stabilization, while Andre Vézina (I.T.A., Pocatière campus) followed by explaining the use of hedges as windbreakers in Quebec.

To begin the afternoon, Sylvie de Blois (McGill University) showed the capacity of certain stable herbaceous covers to inhibit the growth of trees in areas of electricity transmission. Thereafter, Michel Labrecque returned to speak about willows and their potential use as hedges on the edge of roads to limit traffic noise. Florent Chazarenc (IRBV, École Polytechnique Montréal) and Anne-Caroline Kroeger (McGill University) followed, and spoke about the use of marsh filters for the purification of waste waters, such as water derived from pisciculture (F. Chazarenc) and from agricultural practices (A.C. Kroeger). To bring to an end to the discussions, Danielle Dagenais (University of Montreal) presented a summary of the indirect benefits of the use of vegetation in Phyto-Engineering on the environment and health.

The great number of participants attending the conference testifies to the growing interest in Phyto-Engineering, and the importance of better integration among the various stakeholders in Quebec. The organizer of the conference, Jacques Brisson (IRBV, University of Montreal) ended the day by introducing a proposed collaborative Quebec project on Phyto-Engineering. This collaboration would aim to promote the use of Phyto-Engineering approaches, facilitate the continuation of excellence in this field through training, information dissemination, and research, as well as support exchanges between Phyto-Engineering stakeholders in Quebec. As of the autumn of 2007, a committee will determine the provisions allowing for the official creation of this project, and a recruitment campaign will commence. It is hoped that under the banner of this association, the Phyto-Engineering conference will become an annual event not to be missed.