Even before a tree falls on Collingwood’s Sixth Street it inspires a lot of noise.
Recently, a plan to reconstruct Sixth Street from High to Hurontario Streets has been a hot topic at council meetings, on local social media groups and in the letters-to-the-editor section for the sake of 36 trees currently lining the street and slated to be cut down.
A resident-led petition followed by about three dozen people protesting with a march along the street suggested council ought to leave those trunks alone.
The current approved design for the road is two vehicle lanes with curbs on either side, and above the curb a bike lane on each side of the road and a pedestrian sidewalk on the north side only.
While some say the simple solution is to rebuild the street as is – two driving lanes with a bike lane on each side of the road, and a sidewalk – a local arborist says it’s going to take more than sticking to the status-quo to save the trees.
In fact, Tobias Effinger, senior arborist at Arboreal Inc., suggests the town start planting a forest, knowing a project like Sixth Street isn’t a one-off.
“I feel the town should be beholden to the owners, taxypayers, residents, and users of the site to actually set aside a space in town limits and start creating a forest,” said Effinger. “Every time there’s a project like this, you plant a certain amount of trees.”
He suggests a five-hectare forest with a variety of trees in different growing stages could become a 1,000-year legacy project within Collingwood. A forest of that size could be a functioning eco-system for plant and wildlife to thrive, and would do a lot of carbon sequestration in support of clean air.
“You need a certain amount of volume [of forest] to start attracting certain wildlife,” said Effinger, referring to some owls that won’t nest unless there’s a larger forest available as habitat.
But a forest is a long-term project, and it wouldn’t provide shade on Sixth Street.
While the town has promised to plant two trees (on private and public property) for every one that is cut down for the Sixth Street project. Critics argue those new trees will take 50 years to become as picturesque, tall, and full as the trees that now line the street.
Effinger agrees it takes decades for some trees to mature to that level, and also adds a boulevard is a hostile place to put a tree. Even with soil testing and diversity of tree plantings, the success rates for native trees are not very high.
“It’s a very challenging proposition trying to get trees to grow in these boulevards,” he said. “If you’re not doing everything right, a lot of them are going to fail, or just be stunted for so long that they’re problematic and maybe have to be replaced, and how many times can you replace a tree?”
A forest like the one Effinger proposes can stand for centuries and the trees planted there have a better chance of thriving.
And yet, Effinger sees value in individual trees along Sixth Street and elsewhere. His company works with The Blue Mountains and Meaford Treet Trusts to save individual (usually older) trees by maintaining and treating them to help give them a longer and healthier life.
During a walk along Sixth Street, Effinger points out a few native Silver Maple trees that tower over the street providing shade for several metres in each direction.
The trees with good structure and no rot could still live long lives.
“It certainly has immense value,” said Effinger as he stared up at a healthy-looking Silver Maple.
He qualified his statement to note that more detailed assessments could be done to find out of there’s decay, to quantify the vitality of the tree, and figure out how long it might last if left alone.
But the trees won’t be left alone.
The reconstruction project is necessary, say town officials, because the water and wastewater infrastructure under the street is old and needs to be replaced.
The road will be torn up, machines will dig and cut around and very close to the tree, if it’s not cut down before the project begins. Many of the Silver Maples could loose around 40 per cent or more of their underground root structure, which could be fatal to the tree.
“It will have roots underneath that road,” said Effinger. “You’re going to tear those up because they’re going to restructure that whole thing, and so, to try to stabilize this tree with those roots gone … it’s going to be a proper challenge.”
There are ways, said the more than 24-year certified arborist, to use “air spades” to dig around the roots and put structural soils back into those spaces to support the roots and hold up the sidewalk. The sidewalk could be made with permeable stones to allow the tree to take in water easier instead of all the water being carried away by roads and sidewalks.
“It’s expensive,” said Effinger. “And it forces you to think, if we’re doing that for every tree like this and its survival probability is low, then those resources could have also gone again to that forest or some other space or more planting or maybe better care to other trees in town that aren’t getting any.”
There are 14 Silver Maple trees along Sixth Street slated to come down based on the town’s current plan for reconstruction.
Not all of them are in the same shape.
The hazards of the boulevard have taken their toll. Some of the roots have been damaged by sidewalk plows. Because of the damage, disease and decay sets in, some of the trees are showing signs of significant decay moving through a large portion of the tree (more than half in some cases).
Along the road there are a couple of ash trees with bare branches stretching into the sky. The Emerald Ash Borer has likely destroyed the tree from the inside and it will come down in the next few years on its own.
A couple of young trees along the street are still small enough to be moved temporarily during construction and returned to the boulevard after the work is complete, according to Effinger.
There’s one Freeman Maple tree that appears to be in the path of the reconstruction. A Freeman Maple is a hybrid between a Red and Silver Maple. It grows fast and is a hardy tree that is more disease tolerant than other native maples.
The roots of the Freeman Maple on Sixth Street have been damaged by repeated scraping by a sidewalk plow. Decay has set in at the roots and made its way toward the trunk of the tree. Other roots from the tree appear to be lifting the sidewalk in places.
There are also seven Norway Maples that could be taken down for the project. A Norway Maple is a non-native and invasive species that produces significantly more seeds than native trees and does not produce sap like a sugar maple.
There are some trees with red, maple-shaped leaves, but Effinger confirmed they’re Crimson Kings, which is a Norway Maple that has been modified to produce a red pigment. Its seeds grow into regular green-leafed Norway Maples.
Tree Canada calls Norway Maples “tree killers” because they are so invasive, blocking out native tree seedlings from establishing and also spreading disease.
“It’s actually the only tree in our region that is on our black book,” said Effinger.
But because of its invasive properties, long leaf season, and ability to out-compete other trees, Norway Maples provide a lot of shade.
“That’s what they do, and that’s part of the problem,” said Effinger.
They also sequester carbon.
“Even the most invasive, and sometimes the most invasive thing is actually suppressing the most carbon because it’s doing well,” said Effinger.
If carbon sequestration is the goal, the arborist said it’s usually mid-sized trees doing the heavy lifting, because they’re healthy and thriving.
“Sometimes the most majestic trees that we have the most emotional attachment to aren’t the ones that are going to be doing the most sequestration over the next two decades,” he said, noting there are other ways trees are valuable, including for the emotional connections they evoke.
He would like to see trees and green infrastructure be one of the first things considered in construction projects.
“We look at [green infrastructure] and say, how can we save this and how much longer can these trees be here if we do everything right?” he said. “And if that comes out of the balance at the end with a positive checkmark, then I would say it’s full steam ahead with that style of project. And if you’re going to damage [trees] … then I think you at least need to reconsider what you’re doing.”
Overall, Effinger thinks the Freeman Maple and a couple of the Silver Maples are worth extra thought.
“Certainly worth attention and consideration and making sure that we think really hard about what the next steps are,” he said.
And those next steps should be more than not cutting the tree down, because they likely won’t survive the damage from construction unless they are protected through special digging equipment and a plan to preserve the roots.
“Not everyone will be happy, and nor should they be, because their convictions are important,” said Effinger.
Starting a local forest and planting trees in it like deposits in a bank would be a valuable outcome for all, according to the arborist and professional tree planter.
“It will make a difference, a huge difference,” he said, noting the forest should be well thought out “proper functioning forest” with diversity of trees, succession planting, understory plants and perennials to create a forest can last a millennium.
“Because let’s face it, the street trees, while they can be valuable … will be gone one day,” said Effinger. “If there’s a construction project here, even if you try to save them, I expect the stress will bring them down.”
The Sixth Street reconstruction project is due to come up again at council on July 8 when Mayor Yvonne Hamlin said she would be presenting a “modified” design for the streetscape with a two-way bike lane on one side of the street instead of a lane on each side.
