{"id":2206,"date":"2007-08-20T12:00:46","date_gmt":"2007-08-20T16:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=2206"},"modified":"2013-01-21T14:52:51","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T19:52:51","slug":"why-torontos-street-side-trees-are-dying-part-xxviii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/08\/20\/why-torontos-street-side-trees-are-dying-part-xxviii\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Toronto’s street-side trees are dying, part XXVIII"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Spacing is lucky to have access to local arborist Todd Irvine<\/a>. Whenever we’re walking together he’ll educate us on a variety of urban trees issues that most of us overlook. I was up at Yonge and Finch Sunday night and I was happy *not* to have Todd around because he would’ve been exposed to a sad patch of trees.<\/p>\n

As many of you know, “downtown” North York, the strip of Yonge Street between Sheppard and Finch, is experiencing massive growth. I grew up along this strip during the 1980s and mid-1990s and watched what was once a charming “Main Street” be transformed into a valley of high-rises and a secondary highway for 416ers and 905ers alike. I stood at the corner of Yonge and Finch and counted 19 condo buildings within eye sight with many more blocked by other condos or just too far away for me to see. This kind of construction means sidewalks get torn up, which in turn allows the City to improve the urban design of the surrounding area.<\/p>\n

My mom lives in one of those condos just southwest of Yonge and Finch. As I walked to her place I passed the relatively new Shoppers Drug Mart store that supports the surrounding neighbourhood. During the spring, the City put down a new sidewalk, added a bench, and planted five trees outside the store. Problem is, all five of those trees are dead and\/or dying. The other five trees that were planted on the south side of the store are near death too. Even more sad is that these trees are some of the only ones you will find for blocks. The strip has grand boulevard-sized sidewalks but somehow trees don’t seem to be an important part of the streetscape.<\/p>\n

Before I sound off, I’ll acknowledge that Toronto is experiencing the driest summer in 50 years<\/a> (has anyone noticed how quickly the grass turned from green to brown over the last three weeks?). The City’s urban forestry staff has also said they don’t have the capacity to water all of the city’s street trees because councillors have not dedicated enough money in the budget to hire enough staff and\/or maintain necessary equipment (and this was before the latest budget crisis).<\/p>\n

But what really gets my temperature rising is that the trees have been placed in tree planters, which are sometimes affectionately referred to as “tree coffins.” As the photo illustrates, all five trees sit in elevated cement tree pits. Everything I’ve ever heard about tree planters from Todd, landscape architects, and City staff is that they are a major obstacle to maintaining healthy urban trees. The current trend is to plant trees in a trench — before the sidewalk is laid down, the trees are planted in one long ditch and slowly covered by the cement blocks. This kind of system allows the roots enough space to grow in either direction instead of being isolated in their coffins. This has been done on the re-vamped part of College Street between Spadina and Bathurst and can be seen in many downtown sidewalk reconstructions and re-platings (though many trees are dying all around downtown because of tree coffins and cement covered tree pits).<\/p>\n

What boggles my mind is why the City would even allow this type of tree planting to continue. Toronto’s tree canopy is pegged at the 17-18% range, down from 25% only a decade ago. Downtown North York has plenty of planning problems (thanks for this legacy, Mr Lastman!), but is there any hope for a healthy urban forest if the City doesn’t even take the time to plant it’s own trees properly?<\/p>\n

photo by Matthew Blackett<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spacing is lucky to have access to local arborist Todd Irvine. Whenever we’re walking together he’ll educate us on a variety of urban trees issues that most of us overlook. I was up at Yonge and Finch Sunday night and I was happy *not* to have Todd around because he would’ve been exposed to aContinue reading “Why Toronto’s street-side trees are dying, part XXVIII”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1022,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,2,20],"tags":[6291,778,6535,23,6536,667,12,6537,917,19,496],"class_list":["post-2206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-green-space","category-politics","category-urban-design","tag-cement-blocks","tag-college-street","tag-elevated-cement-tree-pits","tag-environment","tag-lastman","tag-matthew-blackett","tag-planning","tag-shoppers-drug-mart-store","tag-todd-irvine","tag-toronto","tag-york"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Toronto's street-side trees are dying, part XXVIII - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/08\/20\/why-torontos-street-side-trees-are-dying-part-xxviii\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Toronto's street-side trees are dying, part XXVIII - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Spacing is lucky to have access to local arborist Todd Irvine. 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