Fences around High Park cherry blossoms come down as blooming period ends

Thestar.com
April 29, 2021
Celina Gallardo

On Wednesday, city staff removed the fencing around High Park’s cherry blossom trees as their blooming period comes to an end. The fences were originally put up to deter visitors from crowding the park grounds as a COVID-19 safety precaution.

Before COVID-19, tens of thousands of people flocked to High Park to admire and photograph the cherry blossom trees and their pink blooms. To ensure people can still enjoy them safely at home, the city brought back last year’s BloomCam, a livestream of the trees. Between April 14 and 27, the stream amassed over 320,000 views.

On top of fencing the trees off, the city closed the park off to vehicles and had city staff present at High Park to ensure that parkgoers observed COVID-19 restrictions.

“Based on viewership on the BloomCam, low pedestrian traffic, and low enforcement activity, city efforts were successful,” a City of Toronto spokesperson said.

Steve Joniak, who runs Sakura in High Park, a website that tracks the best times to view cherry blossoms in High Park, found that visitors were respectful and practised physical distancing. “I didn’t see anyone try to jump fences or cause any trouble,” he said.

Joniak hopes that the absence of the fences will give people one last chance to view the trees like they would before the pandemic, even if their petals are already falling off.

“Now that the fences are removed, I do believe a good number of people will go to the park in hopes of seeing cherry blossoms as in past years,” Joniak said. “Part of the cherry blossom tradition in Japan is to enjoy the falling of the petals as it reminds of the fleeting part of life and to cherish the time we do have to enjoy life.”