FERGUS – Some residents have joined forces to help protect three century-old maple trees slated for removal in their neighbourhood.
Kelsye Coulter said she was walking her dog Monday morning when she was shocked to see workers cutting down two, century-old maple trees outside of 965 Gartshore St., the future location of Centre Wellington's new operations centre.
"It's kinda visceral when you see something like that, those trees have been there for so long," said Coulter. "It feels like if they were to be sacrificed, that you would have a ceremony around it or something."
In attempts to prevent the removal of three remaining maple trees, Coulter called Toni Ellis from Neighbourwoods and Mayor Shawn Watters, who said he went to the site after he "kept getting this phone call" from someone who seemed "pretty distressed."
Upon his arrival, Watters said he was met with four or five people expressing concerns and the tree removals were stayed for safety reasons, as trees shouldn't be removed when people are on-site. Staff will provide an update on the removals in the next few days.
According to Watters, the tree removals are part of the pre-construction work for the new operations centre, planned for later this spring.
"All I really did was say let's take a pause. Let's look at this in more detail ... to see if these trees are an issue or not and maybe the trees will stay," said Watters, in a phone interview.
In the interim, Watters said staff will evaluate if there are good reasons for the trees to come down as only trees conflicting with the development's footprint are to be removed, along with any dead trees.
Of the 330 trees currently on site, 130 are slated to be removed for the new operations centre; 260 trees will be planted in their stead. Forty per cent of the trees slated for removal are classified as being in fair or poor condition.
"Sometimes when you do an overall site plan, it's more of a broad stroke. But then when you get into the individual, sometimes you can make these calls and say, 'Hey, maybe we can salvage these trees,'" said Watters. "So we'll see what happens in the next few days."
When asked why she got involved, Ellis said she's "always concerned when trees are removed," anticipating the three maples are "at least 100 years old" based on their size.
"I gather that the township has made preserving trees on the site important. That said, sometimes there are times when small refinements to a plan can save some trees," said Ellis, commending the mayor and Coun. Bronwynne Wilton for their prompt responses on Monday.
Calling the township's tree replacement plan "woefully insufficient," Ellis said it's important to advocate for preserving existing elder trees because they are established and adapted to the area, not to mention they add "significant ecological and social value" to the community.
"When you consider the loss of a large tree canopy, it would take several hundred saplings to replace one elder tree," said Ellis.
Looking to the future, Coulter said while she appreciates the mayor's efforts to help, she'd like to see more consultation when tree removals are proposed in the hopes it will inspire an attitude that is "more responsible, more effective and more sympathetic to the trees."
"It seems to me that there's nobody defending the trees," said Coulter. "It's not like someone's coming and cutting them all down but we're not representing the trees properly."
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
