Wishing for trees

County will review tree replacement policy

Around the County, where trees once stood, there are now empty spaces. Every year this happens: County staff identify trees that must be removed because of their condition or location. And while a tree removal policy, written more than a decade ago, encourages planting new trees in their place, it does not require it. Neither does it require an arborist to be consulted about whether a tree should be removed to begin with.

More troubling, the County does not have an arborist on staff.

Last Thursday, Picton councillor Lenny Epstein appealed to a committee of council to direct staff to revise and update the policy. He especially wants to see the policy strengthened in places with secondary plans, like Wellington, Picton and Rossmore.

“Our current policy around trees is not up to date enough, and it does not align with current policies on urban forestry,” Epstein said.

Epstein said the new policy should have a stronger stand on replacing trees, using arborists to determine whether to remove them, and to extend the policy past its current scope, which covers trees along County roads, but not on other County properties like parks, nor on private land.

The idea of regulating tree removal and planting on private lands irked councillor David Harrison, who objected to the idea.

“As long as it’s directed to secondary plans, I will support it, but not extended to private property,” said Harrison.

Several councillors worried about the timing of the proposal, just before budget time. Councillor Roy Penell argued the commissioners already had enough on their plate at this time of year, and that introducing a new task would be ill-advised. Councillors Bill Roberts and Barry Turpin agreed.

“It sounds like a pretty long and extensive report, and I think putting that on [staff] on this particular time is a really big dump,” said Turpin. “It sounded like a huge report that would have to come back, quite time consuming for the people involved.”

Turpin also reminded council that he is part of the Loyalist Parkway Association, which would fund tree replacement on private property along the County’s main road.

Epstein said he understood the timing wasn’t ideal, but that the task could still be put on staff’s to do list. He added that Nature Canada had already developed a prescribed set of tree policies the County could use which would cut down on staff time and make the report much less exhaustive.

Wellington resident Bill Boultbee attended the council meeting, and presented a deputation before it began, offering his services to the County. Before a long career as a high school teacher and real estate agent, Boutlbee studied forestry, and says that although much time has passed, he would be happy to help the County determine how best to approach tree removal and replacement.

“My feeling is, I love the County, for one thing, and I love Wellington. I’ve lived here since ’71. And I feel that the character of Bloomfield, Wellington, Picton, all depend on two things: the older houses that they keep in good condition and secondly the nice trees along the boulevard,” says Boultbee. “We’ve got to replace these trees that are being taken down.”

Boultbee says that there should be new trees where old ones were removed from Wellington’s Main Street.

In the meeting, public works commissioner Robert McAuley objected to the change in policy, arguing that the amount it would cost to replace each tree removed far exceeded the budget council had allowed for it.

Boultbee says along with the cost of the new tree and the work and materials to plant and support it, there would be about 10 years of annual maintenance, keeping an eye on the supports to ensure they’re still holding up the trunk of the tree.

“The other thing you have to watch out for, too, is sometimes trees get eaten, their bark gets eaten by rodents like squirrels, and if you get a whole ring cut out of a tree, it dies.”

County staff is already familiar with the process known as girdling, or putting mesh around a tree’s trunk to protect it from this type of damage. It has been done to the poplars on the Wellington beach, where beavers threatened the trees by eating their bark.

McAuley also warned the process involved would take a long time, possibly two years per tree. Epstein didn’t think that was a problem, either.

“That’s ok. Trees live a long time. In fact, the County was known for having the oldest maple tree in the world at West Lake called the Wishing Tree, which, when eventually it got hit by lighting and they did take it down, it was 731 years old,” said Epstein.

He offered alternate solutions to council, such as community forestry, in which residents could participate in paying for, planting and maintaining trees. “It’s definitely a journey we should start, and hopefully it doesn’t take us 731 years.”

“I’m not holding my breath,” says Boultbee.

Despite the hesitation, council approved Epstein’s motion to direct staff to review the policy