Demonstrators against a housing development in Kanata that includes part of the Beaver Pond Forest staged a brief protest at the site Tuesday morning in an attempt to stall tree-clearing work.

About 20 people, mostly students, chanted and sang about 100 metres from the entrance to the site at Goulbourn Forced Road, surrounding a piece of machinery and demanding the city and the province put a stop to the development until the area gets a new archeological and environment assessment.

They left after police warned them they would be arrested if they remained on the site.

KNL, a consortium of developers, is set to clear a 29-hectare section of Kanata's South March Highlands — which includes two square kilometres of Beaver Pond Forest — to make way for a 3,300-unit subdivision.

A week ago, demonstrators staged similar protests at the site and at city hall, saying the forest was home to sites of archeological interest to the Algonquin people.

The provincial Tourism and Cultural Ministry approved the original 2002 archeological study conducted by KNL, and later affirmed that decision in 2010. Ottawa's city council approved the new subdivision seven years ago.

In the fall, the city arranged a land swap with the developer to protect a small strip of land through the planned subdivision, but said it could not afford to pay the $40 million to buy the land from the developer.

Workcrews began cutting and gathering trees at the site of the Beaver Pond Forest development in Kanata on Jan. 31. (CBC)