Sol Shuster of the Greenbelt Coalition of Canada's Capital Region called on federal transport minister Chuck Strahl to stop development in Ottawa's greenbelt. (CBC)

Environmentalists protesting a development in Ottawa's greenbelt rallied outside the office of federal transport minister Chuck Strahl Tuesday.

The Greenbelt Coalition of Canada's Capital Region is fighting the development of 33-acre lot near the Ottawa airport. The site is the proposed home of a trade show facility for Ottawa, but the environmentalists say the land is a nesting area for the Blanding's Turtle — classified as a threatened species in Ontario and Quebec.

"Right now there are bulldozers in the greenbelt, in wetlands, that are destroying that wetland," said the coalition's Sol Shuster.

"Minister Stahl is the minister of transportation and he has authority to stop them, and we want him to stop it. This is a precedent."

Transport Canada, who owns the land, is leasing it to the Ottawa International Airport Authority, who in turn have sub-leased it to be developed by the Shenkman Corp.

Demolition work has already begun on the site. Shenkman Corp., which is receiving public money from the city for the trade-show centre, said it has to drain and clear the site before winter or the complex won't be ready for 2012.

Shuster said the development is moving too quickly. He criticized the National Capital Commission, the Crown corporation that acts as steward of federal land in the capital region, for failing to protect the wetlands and said both the commission and federal governments have not waited for a provincial environmental assessment of the project.