WHAT? Tree tour of McGill’s upper campus
WHEN? Tomorrow, Sunday June 8 at 10am
WHERE? Meet in front of the Redpath Museum
HOW MUCH? $10 adults, $5 students
Bronwyn Chester will be hosting another tree tour tomorrow. Over the course of the summer, she hopes to make this a regular event, travelling across Montreal to explore the trees of the city’s different streets, parks and neighbourhoods. In today’s Gazette, I have a brief article describing the tour she gave of Laval Street two weeks ago.
Chester began by handing out a list of trees found on and near Laval Ave. – more than three dozen in all – then unfolded a map of Montreal’s largest parks.
“The area around Montreal is where the richest forest in Quebec is found, but it’s also the most heavily farmed and exploited forest,” she said, gesturing to the parks on the map.
“We’ve managed to replace a degree of the biodiversity that once existed and, in between, on the streets, we’ve created bridges between those islands of green.”
As Chester ushered the group up Laval, she pointed toward the street’s thick canopy of trees, explaining that many of them are maples that were planted only 30 years ago — a bit surprising when you consider that the street was first developed in the 1860s.
“Before World War II, this street would have been completely covered by white elms. They were like umbrellas, they provided a lot of shade, but most of them were removed because of Dutch elm disease.” She gestured to a large tree whose trunk occupied most of the sidewalk. “After the elms died, they were replaced by maples, which grow very quickly, but they become so big they’ve fallen out of favour.”
Read on if you want to find out more — or just head down to the McGill campus at tomorrow morning, where a tour of the university’s trees will start at 10am.