Leaside’s once-proud urban forest bears the scars of a battle fought against natural forces unlike any Toronto has ever seen.

The city’s entire canopy felt the weight of the ice in December, as layers piled on and pulled mighty limbs to the ground, but in Leaside, where decades-old Norway maples stood sentry in front of many homes, the damage is devastating.

Crews picking up the dead branches have described Leaside as the hardest-hit neighbourhood. Its residents look on split and cracked limbs with fear of what the spring will bring as one of the city’s noteworthy canopies struggles to come back from the assault.

Tell us what happened to your tree

The massive cleanup effort undertaken in the wake of the ice storm has cleared 48 of the 160 zones drawn by the city, but many in Leaside still wait to have debris removed. Branches are piled on every free boulevard. Where the wreckage proves too vast to be contained, it spills onto the road and sidewalk.

A tour through Leaside streets found Airdrie Rd.’s trees to be the most obviously wounded.





Many trees in Leaside are old and large, said Airdrie resident Michele Petick, whose branches lay piled with her neighbour’s on the roadway, blocking one lane of traffic as they wait for city crews to grind them up.

“I phoned 311 last Monday and asked them, ‘What’s the schedule? When are we going to get crews to come and clean up all these beaver dams?’ and she said, ‘You’re not even on the list yet,’ ” said Petick.

Crews were working in Leaside Tuesday afternoon, but had not yet completed her street.

Jim Harnum, the city’s general manager of solid waste management, noted it’s difficult to get an accurate count of the destruction but workers in the field have reported that Leaside suffered massive damage.

“But it’s really across the entire city . . . Scarborough and North York are also areas that were hard hit,” said Harnum. “Some streets (are) bomb zones. Other streets right next door looked great.”

Mayor Rob Ford told a news conference Tuesday that cleanup was progressing and called for a meeting with Premier Kathleen Wynne “as soon as possible,” noting he is the “elected head” of Toronto City Council.

The city is appealing to the province for help covering $171 million in damages from the ice storm and summer flood

After the ice storm, Wynne stayed in touch with Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly and ignored Ford who was stripped of most of his powers by city council in November after admitting he smoked crack cocaine.

At Queen’s Park, Wynne’s office denied Ford’s request.

“Premier Wynne has met and will continue to meet with Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly, who represents Toronto City Council,” said Kelly Baker, the premier’s press secretary. Baker added that Municipal Affairs Minister Linda Jeffrey is handling the disaster relief.

The extent of the damage to Toronto’s tree canopy is unclear. Accurately evaluating the canopy is a lengthy and costly process, said Richard Ubbens, director of parks and former director of forestry.

The city first did a thorough evaluation in 2008, when it studied satellite imagery to determine that Toronto had 26.6 to 28 per cent forest coverage. The study is scheduled to be undertaken every five to 10 years as the city works toward its goal of 40-per-cent coverage in 2050.

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“When you get a massive storm like this it does obviously have an impact on the canopy. Some new trees that were planted have now snapped in two and need to be replaced. Some older trees that have extensive damage, they need to be removed,” said Ubbens. “To get a change from before the storm to after the storm would take a tremendous amount of data to say very specifically, well it’s gone from this to that.”

Ubbens said the department is focusing on repairing the canopy and will do another measurement when the city’s strategic plan deems it necessary. He noted that tree species played a minimal role in the extent of the damage.

“This storm, it wasn’t about which species of trees do well or not well under this kind of a load. This storm affected every tree — all sizes, all shapes, native trees, non-native trees, trees that had been pruned last year and trees that hadn’t been pruned in 20 years.”

With files from Betsy Powell and Robert Benzie

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