Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville aims to save historic American elm tree

Council directs staff to review options to protect one of the oldest trees in Whitchurch-Stouffville

Yorkregion.com
October 23, 2019
Simon Martin

The Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville is looking to do what it can do save a historic American elm tree that is on the proposed site for the Lincolnville GO station expansion. The town has added 12902 Tenth Line to the municipal cultural heritage register as a non-designated heritage property and has asked staff to review its options to protect the American elm tree.

“It’s actually quite a stunning tree,” Mayor Iain Lovatt said

Lovatt has been in touch with Metrolinx about the issue. He said Metrolinx realizes the tree is significant but are concerned about the late juncture at which concerns arose.

Earlier this summer, there was a large outpouring of public support for the tree after an article in the Stouffville Sun-Tribune.

Stouffville arborist Mark Carroll said the 200-year-old tree is one of the oldest in Whitchurch-Stouffville. "It is the largest and maybe the oldest tree in Whitchurch-Stouffville,” he said, noting the tree is 40 metres tall, with a canopy 40 metres wide and a four-metre trunk circumference.

At the time of the article, Metrolinx said they were working with environmental consultants to carry out a feasibility study that will advise on all possible options to save the tree.

Carroll said that most of the elm trees in the area were destroyed by Dutch elm disease which wreaked havoc on the species in the 1970s and 1980s. The fact this particular tree was able to survive makes it all the more special. According to Carroll, the tree has been documented and the Arboretum at Guelph University has on record the position, condition and size of the tree. The Arboretum, through the Elm Recovery Program, looks at these large American elms to see how resistant to Dutch elm disease they are. Carroll said the recovery program looks to these old surviving trees for the collection of seeds and genetic cellular regeneration to save the species into the future.

“There are not many left in Ontario, and we need these types of trees to further the recovery of true American elms,” he said. “It’s such a great healthy tree, it would be a shame to lose this one.”