Tuesday 16 September 2014

Tree Story: Trees, Time and Fences

While conducting our urban forest inventory in Westdale this summer several of our volunteers noted that often urban trees occured not because they were planted and cared for but rather because an area was ignored long enough for a tree to become established. The most striking evidence of this were the trees (some of considerable size) that we encountered growing into and through old fences and posts. Unfortunately, the trees established in these unlikely places were more likely to be non-native, 'weedy'  species, such as norway maples, manitoba maples and locusts. One of our volunteers, Kayley, snapped these photos of trees engulfing a fence along a property boundary.




Another one of our volunteers, Dheerendra, went as far as to create a public education poster, that was a compilation of photos of urban trees in poor health due to neglect, with the caption: Hey!  We're sick, please help us....Each one of us has a different story to tell. You can find us near Whitney Avenue, Hamilton.

Thank you Kayley and Dheerendra for sharing your photos and tree story!