It’s now up to Torontonians to protect city’s oldest tree

Thestar.com
Dec. 16, 2019
David Rider

A massive tree believed to be Toronto’s oldest is closer to becoming officially protected public property.

But it’s now up to Torontonians to dig into their pockets and help buy a North York home and yard to ensure the majestic red oak, estimated to be at least 250 years old, never again faces the threat of a chainsaw.

“After 14 years this is finally going to happen,” a triumphant Edith George, who lives near the Coral Gable Dr. site, said of her long battle to ensure preservation of the skyscraping oak that was already tall when pre-Toronto York was founded.

“It’s like an old Methuselah,” she said, referring to the biblical figure associated with living antiquity. “It could be 300 years old, it’s survived everything,” from sapling status along an Indigenous trail, to European settlement, to logging along the nearby Humber River, and finally 20th-century subdivision development.

“You look at it in a complete state of shock and say ‘Sweet Louise, are you kidding me?”

Ali Simaga bought the house with the red oak in the backyard for his family in 2015. Amid concerns over towering branches above and massive roots below, his realtor suggested the city buy the site or the tree could be felled.

On-again, off-again talks between the owner and the city seemed doomed. City council in 2018 passed a motion authorizing city staff to make an offer conditional on at least half the purchase price being funded from private donations.

A price and conditions were agreed upon Dec. 9, the Star has learned. Now, to complete the sale that will see the home demolished and the site near Sheppard Ave. W. and Weston Rd. become a parkette with benches and information about the living giant, Torontonians need to donate a total of $430,000 by Dec. 12, 2020.

Donations can be made through the city donations office at 416-392-1144 or by emailing donate@toronto.ca for instructions. Tax receipts can be issued for donations ranging from $20 to $50,000.

The effort has a $100,000 head start thanks to Mark Cullen, the celebrated gardener, author and Toronto Star columnist, and his wife Mary.

Cullen said Saturday that he confirmed with the city that their offer stands, conditional on others chipping in the remainder and on the city doing the work required to preserve the red oak for generations to come.

“What we want to do is protect and celebrate this tree,” much like Parisians do in a park home to a tree planted in 1601, Cullen said. “This is a legacy piece for Toronto and we can’t let the oldest tree in the 416 go -- we just can’t do that.”

He’s not making it a condition of his donation but Cullen would like to see the new parkette dedicated to First Nations residents who, like the oak, have roots older than colonial settlements. “Since we’re currently going through a process of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, and the tree is on a trail they used, this could be a good gesture,” Cullen said.

A city document notes plans “to convert the property into a local park with the oak tree as its primary feature. It is proposed that the existing detached house will be carefully demolished and the foundation backfilled in this conversion.”

George wants everyone to be able to see -- but not touch -- the oak that towers about 24 metres, almost the height of an eight-storey building, and boasts a five-metre circumference.

“We have to protect it, it’s in pretty good shape but there are some dead branches and it needs some care,” George said. “This will be a showcase, a natural tree museum, and I think we’ll get forestry students all kinds of people visiting. If we’re lucky this tree could live for (more) centuries.”

The city is keeping its offer price secret until the sale is finalized. Simaga bought the house for $520,000 and did a major renovation.

Simaga said Saturday he doesn’t regret the purchase and the tree was part of the appeal. But with so much attention paid to protecting the oak for everyone it makes sense for his former home to become a public site, he said.

“It’s not over yet, there are conditions and the city can back out,” of the sale. “It’s a beautiful majestic tree but it doesn’t need to be only for us.”

George, meanwhile, is working on getting Ontario Heritage Act protection for the oak. It is currently recognized as a heritage tree but falls under the city’s private tree bylaw, which states it can’t be injured or removed without city council permission. The tree advocate is also working on federal heritage recognition.

“It rots my socks,” that the city could have bought the property for much less money had it moved years ago, George says.

Asked what will happen if Torontonians don’t donate enough cash to save her beloved, towering neighbour, George says: “I’m very confident we won’t need the year to raise the money. But if we don’t raise the $330,000,” remaining after Cullen’s donation, she says: “I’ll mortgage my house.”