Residents of another London neighbourhood are angry the city is removing mature trees to make way for infrastructure upgrades.

As of Wednesday evening, nine trees on Highway Avenue in Old South had been felled and a handful of others were marked for removal.

According to the letter sent to residents on May 22, the city planned to remove at least 14 trees on Highway Avenue this spring and at least 16 trees on Lambeth Avenue in the upcoming winter. That includes a Norway Maple in front of the house that Heather Sanderson moved into, with her boyfriend, in December.

"I moved here specifically for the trees," she explained. "I have a lot of birds in my tree, a sparrow's nest in my tree, I have squirrels and everything in there. So to see it come down, would just totally open up the street and make it look awful."

The infrastructure project, slated to start July, includes replacing old sewer and water lines, road reconstruction and new curbs.

Sanderson feels like she's "voiceless" because the city cancelled a public update meeting on the infrastructure project and posted documents online instead. One of those documents, a tree assessment report, said many of the trees are coming down because of construction conflicts with things like curbs and water or sanitary services. Some of the other reasons include trees being in severe decline, being perched high on the boulevard, having root decay or being in the way of snow removal.

It's not the first time London residents have rallied around trees in their neighbourhood. A similar situation unfolded on the nearby Tecumseh Avenue in the summer of 2017, when the city removed trees to lower the street grade and replace old sewer and water lines.

Tecumseh Avenue resident Jennifer Odegaard remembers the fight well.

"We now have problems with traffic moving way too quickly because it appears like a wide open street that someone can just gun down, shade, walkability and enjoyability, these are all things we chose to live in Old South for," she said.

Odegaard said that, at the time, she was assured by city hall that it wouldn't happen.

"And I see it, happening again," she said.

Although it's too late for most of the trees on Highway Avenue, Sanderson said she'd like the city to bring back its arborist to have discussions with residents on Lambeth Avenue before moving forward with the rest of the removal work.

"Put into place a policy that says if we're going to do tree removal on your street, we will inform you when the arborist and the city will be coming back to look at your trees and determine which are sick. From this day to this day, even if you just give us a week. Inform residents that they're coming, so we can be there, we can have a conversation."

See original here:
Residents fighting to save trees as infrastructure project begins in Old South - CBC.ca

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June 20, 2020 at 8:49 pm by Mr HomeBuilder
Category: Tree Removal