St. Albert needs to amend its management plan of the Grey Nuns White Spruce Park to include a maximum sound level of 50 dB. This is the guideline set out by Environment Canada and is required to protect the wildlife of this park.
St. Albert is the home of a wonderful and rare forest. It is an urban first-growth white spruce forest called the Grey Nuns White Spruce Park. This forest is one of the only first-growth white spruce forests found within urban limits in all of North America and it is under attack.
A twinned highway and a shopping centre are both being built that will threaten the park through anthropogenic (human created) noise. There is a large amount of evidence suggesting that anthropogenic noise impacts birds and amphibians and it is crucial that we take this into account when conserving habitat. If we ignore this type of pollution we will either reduce the amount of wildlife in the park or reduce the success and fitness of the species that currently live in the park. This will have a negative impact on the biodiversity of the park and alter its value as a heritage site and its value to the community.
