Jacquie Taschereau mourns the loss of the old elm tree that stood guard on her Roncy street corner long before she got there. In advocating for a tree canopy on Roncesvalles, we also want to make sure that mature trees don't get taken down unnecessarily. Here's an impact statement from Jacquie.

I’ve lost the tree which used to grow just outside my living room windows. On January 8^th men came and cut it down. It was rather a scrawny tree but it had charms. I live on the fourth floor and it framed my views of the neighbourhood. I loved its bright green seeds in spring and the vivid moss on its bark. I loved how the branches brought fresh snow right to eye level in winter.  In summer the leaves helped cool my apartment.  I could be a little bit in nature in the midst of the city and I felt a small private joy whenever I looked out through it. People who sat on the much-used bench on the sidewalk below enjoyed its shade in summer. It was a presence in my life and the life of the street.  I miss that tree and I bet a few other people will do too. 

See more photos in Jacquie's Picasa album.       

I too  spoke to Peter Simon at Urban Forestry about this and he was dismayed to hear the tree was taken down.  So it's perhaps a little less cut and dried than the email from Gord Perks suggests.  Peter says that although the tree was on private property, he would have intervened had he been aware of the owner's plans to take the tree down.  Peter acknowledged that the city almost always loses when the owner claims that a tree is damaging the foundation of a building.  But he says the story might have had a different ending if he and the community had been alerted to the potential loss of this mature Siberian Elm. We would have certainly organized a meeting with the landlord through Roncesvalles Renewed had we known of this before.

Veronica Feihl had also discussed that very tree with Peter on one of our Roncesvalles Renewed walks.  She recalls him saying that it was remarkable because it was self-seeded.  Peter says people often blame trees for interfering with foundations and storm pipes.  In fact, the problem usually happens when underground pipes break and begin to leak.  The trees roots seek out the moisture and that's how the roots end up in the pipes.  So the problem begins, not with the tree's roots, but with the broken pipes.

Thanks Jackie for those beautiful photographs.  They are a real reminder of what's lost when a magnificent tree like that Siberian Elm is taken out of people's lives ... the changing seasons that she records from the window of her apartment four stories above Roncesvalles is truly moving. A testament to the grace and beauty of a mature tree.  And a reminder to some of us at Roncesvalles Renewed of what a beautiful tree canopy along Roncesvalles could do for the soul of a street.