A sit-in outside Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson's office is over after police showed up and asked protesters to leave Tuesday afternoon.

The one-hour sit-in was staged after two native protesters chained themselves to trees in an effort to stop clear-cutting in a Kanata forest slated for development.

"If Mayor Jim Watson were a real leader, he would know enough to realize that the incremental destruction of the last wildlands in the city needs to stop. As a real Chief, he would be on the side of the people and the land," said protester Robert Lovelace, former Chief of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation.

Lovelace and another protester chained themselves to trees at the South March Highlands development site Tuesday morning.

A few hours later they unchained themselves when police told them they'd face trespassing charges if they didn't leave.

"We stopped the cutting for a few hours and I hope that's a good example to other people who want to stop the cutting," said Lovelace.

"We also want the mayor to take responsibility for this. He can blame the past council if he wants for all the errors that have been made in this file. But he now has to take responsibility."

However, the mayor says there's nothing the city can legally do to stop the tree removal.

"The city has talked to the developer, they're not willing to sell and even if they were willing to sell we don't have the $40-50 million to buy the land," Watson told CTV Ottawa on Tuesday.

The property, owned by KNL developments, was purchased through a land deal with the former City of Kanata about 30 years ago.

Although the company delayed clear-cutting to allow time for the First Nations group to do an archeological survey of the site, machines started cutting down trees on Monday.

The group is trying to delay development at the site after the archeological survey concluded there's a "high potential" that ancient Algonquins once occupied the area and Aboriginal artifacts could be found there.

Environmentalists have also protested the development, saying the land has the highest ecological value and biodiversity of any area in the City of Ottawa.

The forest is situated at the entrance to the South March Highlands. The company plans to build thousands of homes on the site.

With a report from CTV Ottawa's Karen Soloman