Tree-cutting blitz irks Toronto neighbourhood

TheGlobeAndMail.com
March 25, 2018
Noella Ovid

Diana Walton remembers the path between Leslie Street and Coxwell Avenue as a beautiful mini forest, occupied by rabbits and the occasional coyote, when she used to walk her dogs there about five years ago. Today, she describes it as a graveyard.

“I just walked past there this morning. Horrific … What a travesty,” Ms. Walton commented on a Facebook post in the Leslieville community group.

Two weeks ago, the city of Toronto started clear-cutting weeping willows and other trees at Ashbridges Bay Treatment Plant for the construction of a new integrated pumping station. Trees along Ashbridges Bay Park were also taken down to relocate the Tubs & Gee Gage Rugby Field and install a parking lot off Coxwell Avenue.

This is just the latest big cut for the neighbourhood that has left some residents devastated.

Ms. Walton said she recalls the same thing happening when the construction of the TTC Leslie Barns began in 2015.

“To see [trees] come down by developers or the city … I don’t think they give it much thought. I think they’re just doing it the quickest, easiest, most inexpensive way,” Ms. Walton said.

A total of 65 trees will be cut down to replace the two pumping stations – one of which has been in operation since 1919 and the other since the 1970s. An additional 19 trees will be removed within the construction area at Ashbridges Bay Park.

Stephan Schmelzer, who lives on Alton Avenue in Leslieville, says the city shouldn’t take down trees when private owners wouldn’t be able to do the same.

“Seems hypocritical – looks like a scene out of the Lorax movie now,” says Mr. Schmelzer, referring to a scene where a truffula tree is cut down in a forest valley.

Ellen Leesti, spokesperson for Toronto Water, wrote that there had been years of public consultation in which the city worked with the community to develop some of the improvements that are being made to public spaces.

Ms. Leesti said the new pumping station will replace aging infrastructure, help manage a growing volume of storm water and provide additional capacity for population growth.

Some of the tree trunks looked like massive 100-year-old maples, Mr. Schmelzer said.

Ms. Leesti said the trees being removed vary in size with the smallest tree being six centimetres in diameter and the largest being 121.

She added that the city will be planting three trees for every one removed, and that it will take approximately 10 years for them to be replaced.

Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon said the city has received a few complaints about the trees coming down, but the project is vital to eliminate sewer overflow, which is a major problem across many cities in North America.

“People aren’t aware of how old our current infrastructure is,” said Ms. McMahon. “[This] needs to be done if we want to have clean water and we want to deal with our wastewater properly.”