Cutting of Whitby tree believed to be 100 years old highlights lack of bylaw protections

Neighbours and advocates say they’re upset after a developer cut down a beloved tree in Whitby that’s believed to be a century old, prompting calls for new protections.

“It was very sad when we came here to see that the tree was actually chopped down. People were screaming and crying. There was a group of people here that day who were very, very distressed,” Rosita Stone, who lives near the Brookfield Residential-owned development site at Garden and Dundas streets in Whitby, said in an interview.

“They promised to protect the tree and have a greenspace there for the whole community to continue enjoying it was well over 100 years old.”

Stone contacted CityNews after crews moved in on Jan. 17 and cut down a large willow tree in the centre of the property. Google satellite imagery showed the large tree and how it was even bigger than a nearby house.

When CityNews visited the site, tree limbs could be seen scattered across the property, along with a large stump still in the ground.

Stone said she contacted the representative with Brookfield Residential about what was happening.

“The project manager said that it was a mistake that the landscapers were only told to work around the trees, yet that same landscaper was here the next day,” she said.

While standing on Mary Street East, Stone showed a drawing she said was handed out by the developer. The rendering showed the large willow tree being preserved on greenspace.

“We don’t have any trust in them anymore. We’ve lost respect, lost trust, and it’s too bad because we were really working with them and complying and trying to negotiate really, and now everything is just destroyed,” she said.

CityNews contacted Brookfield Residential multiple times since Friday to ask about what happened, but we didn’t hear back by our deadline.

In an effort to try to get further answers, CityNews went to the Town of Whitby. A spokesperson said in a statement there isn’t a bylaw that protects trees on private property outside of woodlots (a forested area generally 0.2 hectares in size or larger).

“The Town of Whitby is dedicated to preserving and protecting our tree canopy. Although the mature trees that were removed were not officially protected in this case, the Town sympathizes with residents who are sad to see them removed,” the statement said.

“We remain committed to ensuring our tree canopy is protected for both our residents and future generations.”

The spokesperson reference tree protection requirements for new developments put in place in 2020.

“Large, healthy trees take time to grow and are not easily replaced. Plans created with tree protection in mind help protect the Town’s urban forest and woodlands,” the document said in part.

With respect to the property at 100 Garden St., Town of Whitby staff said Brookfield Residential filed an arborist’s report in September 2021 accompanying an official plan amendment, zoning bylaw amendment and draft plan of a subdivision showing the willow tree protected along with others behind existing homes on Mary Street East and on Garden Street.

“A year later, when they submitted a site plan application for phase one, it no longer showed the large mature willow tree being protected. Staff requested a revised arborist report and tree preservation plan, which we are still waiting for,” the statement said.

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Town officials confirmed they received several complaints earlier in January about activity on the site.

“The Town notified Brookfield’s Project Manager immediately and requested that all work on-site ceased,” they added.

Coun. Niki Lundquist was elected as councillor for the area in October. She said she’s heard how upset neighbours are.

“The scope of the devastation is so profound that it feels post-apocalyptic,” she told CityNews in an interview.

“It’s hard to understand because this is a sophisticated developer. This is not somebody who’s new to development.

“When you have a commitment from a developer to preserve and to protect … the natural trees or the woodlots or whatever it is, and those are not honoured either by mistake or by volition, then, of course, the community is going to be upset.”

Lundquist said the Town’s bylaws aren’t strong enough and that she’s going to bring a motion to council for new, stronger tree protections.

“We have a long way to go in terms of introducing real protections for the natural heritage,” she said.

“It really does show us that what we need is something with more teeth so that the developers understand that we take the preservation of these trees very seriously.”

When asked if these protections would be about preventing development, Lundquist said that isn’t the case.

“We absolutely need housing, but it’s not one or the other. Two things can coexist side by side really well,” she said.

“I’m not fighting intensification in any way, but what I am absolutely going to do is take the voice of the community that says this is not going to be adequate.”

“I just know that the community is understandably upset and they deserve to have their voices heard in terms of the preservation of the features of the neighbourhood that make it a beautiful place to live.”

Tim Gray, the executive director of Environmental Defence, said municipalities need to step up to protect trees since trees have vital benefits, especially in the face of surging housing developments.

“Protection matters and aggressive tree-planting programs matter a lot,” he told CityNews in an interview.

“They save people money, they reduce your heating bills, they really reduce your air conditioning bills. Of course, they provide habitat for wildlife, and that means you need fewer pesticides.”

From an economic perspective, he said trees matter too.

“It does have a huge impact on real estate values. It’s well-known that in leafy neighbourhoods, the houses in those neighbourhoods sell for a lot more money than the ones that don’t,” Gray said.

“In fact, there’s a real equity issue and a lot of tree planting and maintenance programs have tended to focus on maintaining those values in wealthier neighbourhoods and leaving ones that are less wealthy without tree cover, and of course that just exacerbates differences in value and also just differences in the living conditions because the presence of trees makes the area’s so much more pleasant to inhabit.”

RELATED: Cedarvale Park residents working to save community-planted trees

Gray said municipalities have varying bylaws dealing with saving private trees, but he added urban trees are in need of extra protection.

“We have a number of things that are really negatively impacting on our tree canopy and that includes trees that are very old and therefore they’re dying of old age or they have diseases because a lot of the tree plantings in our older cities were done 100 years ago,” he said.

“You have to remember that a tree that might normally live 200 or 300 years in the wild, might live in a city shorter just because it’s being impacted by road salt and too much light and wind and hydro wires and people running into banging things into it — they don’t live as long — so you have to have a more aggressive replacement program.”

Meanwhile, Stone said she hopes something like this won’t happen again in Whitby.

“There’s no remedying the 100-plus-year-old tree, there’s no remedy for it,” she said.

“The trees represent life and the lungs of the planet and we are already in a climate crisis, so we can’t afford to be chopping them down.”