- On Curzon Street east of the schoolyard
- Photo: © Torie Gervais
In the northeast corner of the schoolyard is a large stump of a Norway maple (Acer platanoides) that was cut down in the summer of 2006. Its death was likely the result of successive droughts the previous summers. Its tender fibrous roots were suffocated under dark asphalt, baked from above by the hot sun. The few times it did rain the water quickly drained off the hard surface and into the nearby sewer leaving little for the long-suffering roots below.
Directly across the street, on the yard in front of the church, there are 2 new tree saplings, a honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) and tulip-tree (Liriondendron tulipifera). If you closely look around, you will see subtle mounds of disturbed soil (a total of four, one to the south of the sidewalk beyond the fire hydrant, one to the north of the church in the corner beside the parking lot, and two further north beyond that). These mounds are the remnants of large stumps that were ground up by a big machine after the dying trees had been cut down. All these trees were silver maples (Acer saccharinum), likely planted on the same day nearly 100 years ago. All had the same expected life span and grew under similar conditions, so not surprisingly died at around the same time.
It will take many years for the newly planted trees to get established and replace the ones lost. Since this is happening throughout Toronto it will be decades until our urban forest canopy is as large as it was before our stock of mature street trees began to die. LEAF and the City of Toronto are committed to not let this scenario repeat itself. The City of Toronto offers the Free Street Tree Planting Program , and LEAF’s subsidized Backyard Tree Planting Program has arborists work with homeowners to choose the right tree for their yard. Planting trees on a routine and managed basis to ensure that there are is a diverse range of age and species on each street, both in front and back yards is vital for a healthy urban forest.
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