Our Weird Tree Bylaw

ORIGINALLY POSTED Thursday, January 18, 2007

We have the weirdest by-law on the books. We apparently lifted it from the City of Mississauga.

It is called A By-Law to Authorize the Injury or Destruction of Trees (Tree Permit By-law). One more degree of hyperbole and it could be called “the rape or murder of trees.”

Bear in mind Mississauga stretches from Toronto in the East to Burlington in the West; from Lake Ontario in the south and Milton in the North. Mississauga is huge. Much of it is criss-crossed with major arterial roads. Most of it resembles a vast tract of concrete jungle.

In November, there were corkscrew shaped small trees, dozens of them lining Hurontario Street, completely wrapped and tied in burlap. They must look like that seven months out of the year.

Weird…..

In Aurora, looking down from Newmarket, all you can see are trees. When you turn the corner on many streets, trees are all you can see. There is an obvious need for more money to be spent on the care and nurture of many trees but there is no shortage and every year thousands more are planted.

On my street, fall and spring, the amount of yard waste piled up for collection means new homeowners of the past have planted too many trees. We have created a hospitable habitat for wildlife. I sometimes feel we are at risk of being swallowed by the forest, invaded by muskrats, crowded by raccoons, harried by squirrels and skunked by skunks as a normal course of events.

When people come to council to bewail the loss of wild-life habitat I think ‘You are obviously not living in my neighbourhood.’

In the forty years I have lived in my house, I have created my own perfect little slice of nature without really knowing it. The variety of birds that live in my yard or near it, grows every year. I have to keep digging out trees that have taken root before they get too big to handle.

If they are growing amongst the shrubs they can be six feet tall before I see them.They grow two feet a year. Then all you can do is keep cutting them off at ground level. I'm talkin' maples and beeches, man

Of course the by-law for The Injury and Destruction of Trees is not intended for urban lots. It is aimed at those residents who own acreage with trees. They are the enemy, the potential doers of dastardly deeds who must be guarded against and held in appropriate disdain. But it is clear the intent of the wording is to make anyone who wants or needs to cut down a tree ashamed and embarrassed.

The by-law permits destruction or injury of up to five trees a year.I think that means four. Anymore must be permitted by the town. But it is no ordinary process.

The definition of destruction or injury means; removal, cutting, girding of the tree or roots, interfering with the water supply, application of chemicals, compaction and regrading within the drip line of the tree, or by other means including irreversible injury which may result from neglect, accident or design but does not include pruning.

The fines for so doing are in the thousands of dollars.

Bear in mind, these are privately owned trees on privately owned land. The obvious question that comes to my mind is what kind of a surveillance force would it take to discover any of the above, even if we do have the right or reason to replace an owners judgment with that of a municipality.

But the story does not end here.

In order to obtain a permit, the owner must submit a plan, an arborist's report on the health of the trees. If the tree straddles the property line, permission of the neighbour must be obtained.

Finally fees must be paid. $415.00 and up.

There have been few applications made under this by-law. No complaints on record. But the weirdest thing of all is that an application can be made, all the requirements met and still the permit may not be granted.

For two weeks before the council meeting, the applicant must display on his property a sign telling the world he has made an application to destroy and injure trees.

His neighbours can object.

And council can refuse the application.

For more information on the town's tree program, please click here.

Feedback on the Weird Tree By-law - The process takes 6 weeks. The sign notifying the public of the application to destroy and injure trees has to be posted, even when the trees are dead and hazardous.