Quote:
Originally Posted by O-tacular
Yes I thought that looked familiar from my visits to see family in Boucherville over the years. Is it near that nature preserve island? It almost looks like there's no bridge connecting to it. How do they cultivate the fields? Who owns that land? Many years ago my cousin apparently was growing some pot plants somewhere in there. Doesn't seem like it sees very much human activity.
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The islands were a common pasture during most of the seigneurial regime (until the 1850s). Thereafter they were cultivated by families who owned the land.
The islands were bought by the govt. of Quebec in the 70s and are leased since then to the former owners for sweet corn production. A part of the islands became a provincial park, and the rest was cultivated. There were discussions about the govt. wanting to end the leases and expand the provincial park around 2011-2014. I don't know if it actually happened since the lands still seem to be cultivated on the picture.
As for the bridge, there's half of the pont-tunnel L.-H.-LaFontaine that links Boucherville to Charron island (the westernmost island) by bridge, and the other half between the island and Montreal is a tunnel.
The farmers didn't cross the bridge : they operated small barge that went from the centre of Boucherville to the islands.
An article from La Presse
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