Gore Park trees treated for emerald ash borer ‘alive and looking pretty good’

Queen Victoria’s ash canopy is hanging on

Thespec.com
Dec. 28, 2016
By Mark McNeil

Emerald ash borer destruction continues in the city, but forestry officials say they are hopeful for 10 ash trees around the Queen Victoria statue in Gore Park that have been given special treatment.

The trees are part of an elite collection of 191 "ash trees of significance" across the city that has been undergoing pesticide injections.

"The Gore Park ashes (around the statue) are all alive and looking pretty good," said Steve Robinson, project manager for forest health with the city.

"I'll go out in the springtime after they have leafed out to confirm they are viable candidates for further injections."

The trees - along with others in the park - were planted after the infamous tree massacre of 1983 that saw all of the trees suddenly and mistakenly cut down. Ashes were seen to be a good replacement species because they grow relatively quickly.

But then the emerald ash borer beetle started wreaking destruction in the city about four years ago, and the devastation has been mounting.

If the ashes around the statue survive, they will be the only trees of that species in the park once the final phase of a multi-year redesign project is completed.

All the ash trees in the Veterans' Place section of the park were removed and replaced with different species, either because the ash trees were too damaged by disease, or got in the way of construction work.

Ash trees in front of the Royal Connaught, in the section of land for the third phase of the project, will be removed when the work starts in 2018.

Species being used to replace the ash trees in Gore Park include Armstrong maple, Corinthian linden, red obelisk beech and Arnold tulip poplar.