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Canadian Urbanism Uncovered

R.I.P. Psychedelic Tree Stump

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For nearly 10 years, Trinity-Bellwoods Park has been home to a psychedelic tree and wolf (officially known as the Universal Love Machine). Sometime yesterday afternoon it was cut down by the City. According to Toronto Tree Tours, the reason behind the tree’s felling was based on safety concerns, mostly centred on the decay at the base of the tree, “a process of disintegration caused by fungi and microorganisms that feed on the dead wood. As the wood is broken down the organic matter falls to the ground and is added to the soil to be taken up anew by growing plants.”

The tree has gone through several incarnations over the years including a period of time when it was painted stark white, while on other occasions it has been decorated by jewelry and a stuffed squirrel.

Spacing has created a group on Flickr to memorialize the tree. Please add your photos and we’ll post a collection of great shots to the Wire in the next few days.

photo by Bouke Salverda

UPDATE: Our group on Flickr paid off quickly! Two photos of the tree being removed (below) were added by photographer Happé.

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5 comments

  1. This is sad. I once had a sketchbook geocache set up at the Universal Love Machine. People left some of the coolest sketches.

  2. The dog/wolf is still there howling — I hope somebody installs some kind of something there in the middle of the night to give him/her an object to howl at.

    On the Tree Tour last night “Tim” who worked at the T-B Community centre 10 years ago when it was first painted said they referred to as “the bone” because it looked like a bone.

  3. R.I.P. Treestump but nuthing about Ed Mirvish, eh?

  4. Give me a break. Who was that thing going to hurt?

    “Liability” is the rallying cry of the soulless and afraid.

  5. izimmz> We linked to like 3 stories about Ed. What else would you like us to say?

    Conversely, nobody else talked about the stump. Do you want us to be another Toronto star, or something else?