With 50 trees slated for removal in downtown Orillia, and local tree removals outstripping replantings in recent years, council will consider bolstering the city’s tree-planting program through the 2025 and 2026 budgets.
At last week’s council meeting, city politicians agreed to consider an additional $20,600 for tree-planting efforts in both 2025 and 2026, and directed staff to develop a scope/cost estimate for completing an urban forestry management study and plan for consideration during the 2026 budget process.
Since 2022, 94 trees affected by the emerald ash borer have been removed on municipal road allowances, with 64 replanted in the time since. In city parks, 264 trees were removed in 2023, while only 40 were replanted.
“In my short time here, I’ve been quite surprised at the number of trees that we’ve been removing throughout the city,” said Cheryl Remm, director of facilities, climate change and operations. “This report speaks to our tree-replanting program and how we plan to replenish trees that are being removed — not only ash trees, but also aging trees.”
Should council approve additional funds in the next two budgets, the city will spend a total of $163,800 between 2024 and 2026 on tree replanting.
If approved, the funding will increase tree planting carried out by city staff and contracted services, while also funding tree giveaways for residents to plant trees on their properties.
“We could actually supply far more trees to the city if we operated a tree-giveaway program rather than supplying and planting them ourselves,” Remm said. “What that would mean is that residents would plant them on their own properties, and it would also help alleviate the amount of work to prune and maintain those trees on behalf of the city in the future.”
During the meeting, Coun. Tim Lauer raised concern about plans to remove 50 of the 119 trees in downtown Orillia this summer, questioning whether anything could be done to save them or remove and replace them gradually over an extended period of time.
“I have a real issue with the idea of cutting down 50 trees in downtown,” he said. “I’m wondering if it doesn’t make sense that we only address the most significant safety issues.”
Planted in the 1980s, downtown trees have caused heaving along sidewalks, pushing bricks out of place and creating unsafe surface conditions, with a number of them currently unhealthy or affecting downtown infrastructure.
City council approved two projects with regard to the downtown Orillia streetscape through the 2024 budget, including $1.6 million for detailed design work, as well as a separate sidewalk rehabilitation project brought forward as an interim measure.
As a result, 50 trees are slated for removal, with city staff saying the issues with the trees go well beyond heaving along the sidewalk, which itself has legislative safety requirements.
“The sidewalks in the area have a legislative requirement that we have fallen far from,” said Roger Young, general manager of environment and infrastructure services. “We can have no more than 20-millimetre deviation at any point in our sidewalk. The issue with the trees spans beyond just the sidewalk in the disruption to the infrastructure that it’s causing.”
Young also said many of the downtown trees will sustain damage through the construction process.
“We may be able to get a few more years out of the trees that we’re seeing there, but it’s coming at an incredible risk given the species, the age, the condition,” he said. “There’s a lot of risks that we’re seeing as they continue to age, so there’s a few factors that come into it. It’s not just the sidewalk that we’re looking at; we’re looking at that conflict with buildings, etc., as well.”
