[All] trees down in guelph

[Norah & Richard]

You are not alone. Trees down all over the city. Massive cuts. This is 
downtown Guelph. No bylaw protection under half an acre and little on that.
20 more bikes would have protected it from the ladders that were needed 
to cut it... another time.. it is on youtube in timelapse photography... 
Norah.


Activists make last stand to save lone oak    Nov 20/10   Guelph 
Mercury. GuelphMercury.com - Local - Activists make last stand to save 
lone oak

Drew Halfnight, Mercury staff

GUELPH --- Environmentalists chained bicycles to one of the last trees 
remaining on a strip of Carden Street in downtown Guelph Friday in an 
unsuccessful bid to stop the city from felling it.

The mid-sized red oak was the last of more than 20 trees cut down this 
week to make way for the city's new transit hub.

Guelph Urban Forest Friends members Norah Chaloner and Sue Rietschin and 
local musician James Gordon were among the activists who locked a total 
of five bikes to the tree.

"It's a symbol," said Chaloner of the lone tree on its raft of green in 
an ocean of torn-up earth on Carden. "Maybe it'll make them stop and 
think about a different way to do things."

Chaloner is upset at the city for approving an $8.4-million hub plan 
that, according to city Coun. Bob Bell, left nary a patch of ground for 
trees and shrubs.

"There's no green space. Anywhere," Bell said, adding the hub as 
currently planned will have no public washrooms.

Chaloner and Rietschin said the city was flouting its 2010 official 
plan, which calls for trees to be "retained to the fullest extent 
possible" and "integrated into proposed developments."

The tree slated for removal was about 20 to 30 years old, Chaloner said, 
and like any mature oak, could have hosted hundreds of species, provided 
shade cover and recharged strained aquifers.

"It's a pretty sturdy oak now," she said.

After locking up their bikes, the activists went to the adjacent 
Travelodge where the hotel's general manager Parimal Gandhi looked on, 
visibly defeated, as police inspected the bike. "It's too late," Gandhi 
said. "Frankly, I was opposed to this whole project before it started."

The city has threatened to expropriate part of the hotel's parking lot 
to make room for city bus bays.

Shortly after 1 p.m., workers buzzed off the oak's limbs and trunk and 
removed the bikes, leaving a flat stump where the tree had stood.

Dave Heffernan, owner of the company removing the trees, said the 
activists were "missing the bigger picture."

"The whole project is to reduce pollution and get people commuting," he 
said.

He said many of the trees were too close to buildings anyway, incurring 
maintenance costs. As well, leftover cuttings would be used for mulch in 
an organic nursery, or for home heating, he added.

Bell said construction is being forced through to meet a March 31, 2011, 
federal funding deadline while councillors plead with upper levels of 
government for an extension.

"I really don't want an extension. I want it to stop right here."

Some of the trees being cut down will be replaced, Bell said, "but for 
the most part the entire area will be a sea of concrete and asphalt. 
This project needs to be reconsidered."

/dhalfnight at guelphmercury.com <mailto:dhalfnight at guelphmercury.com>/



<http://news.guelphmercury.com/default>
http://news.guelphmercury.com/News/Local/article/723921
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