29 trees at Harris Park are getting the axe, but some are healthy. City staff explain why

London's Harris Park will look significantly different in a few weeks after more than two dozen centuries-old trees will be chopped down, says the head of the southwestern Ontario city's forestry department. 

The city is in the midst of removing 29 trees from the park, along the Thames Valley Parkway (TVP), as part of the Harris Park Shoreline Restoration Project, aimed at replacing the erosion control structure on the east bank of the Thames River and making enhancements to the park. 

A tree preservation report from February by third-party firm, Ron Koudys Landscape Architects Inc., looked at 52 trees, and recommended that more than half of them be removed as many are in poor health condition, and some will interfere with construction. 

However, out of the ones slated for removal, 11 trees are in good and fair condition with their structural form and integrity, and five are in good condition for both, according to the assessment report.

"Our priority is to obviously take out trees that are not healthy and are not structurally sound," said Paul Yeoman, director of London's forestry department. "Sometimes though, we do take out healthy trees when the impacts are going to be too great for them in the long-term." 

A tree in isolation can be in good or fair condition, but construction impacts can cause its health to decline in the long run, he added.

The project was tweaked to ensure a few individual trees of significance were saved, said Kat Hodgins, the city's supervisor of forestry operations. 

"There are a number of trees here that are going to be critically impacted and need to be removed to allow the project to go ahead," she said, adding that construction impacts can cause extensive damage to a large tree's root zones beneath the ground. 

"When people think about a tree, they think about what they can see from the ground up, but the reality is, there's a lot of roots underground that are critically important to the tree," she said. 

"Trees absorb oxygen through their roots, so if you take too much of that away, or bury it under the soil, the tree's stomach and lungs can't live. It's also not going to be able to hold itself up if too many of those roots are gone."

In the past, tree removal projects have received lots of pushback from Londoners wanting to preserve historic shrubs in the Forest City, but officials need to ensure the park, its surrounding environment, and trees are set up for the future, said Yeoman. 

"We completely understand the passion people have for trees. As forestry professionals, we are passionate about trees as well too. So we're trying to make sure we retain and protect as much as we can and replanting to make sure we're achieving our canopy goals," he said. 

Tree species being removed include invasive and pioneer species such as eastern cottonwoods, willows and the foreign exotic Norway maples. Native species that can grow and sustain near the river such as sycamores and blue beach trees will be replanted instead, Hodgins said.

Harris Park also serves as a space for events, like the annual Rock the Park concert that has more than 5,000 users everyday. Large trees left destabilized and unhealthy are at risk of falling and seriously injuring visitors, said Yeoman.