The destruction of century-old trees in Assiniboine Park has alarmed a Winnipeg arborist, who says the park's stewards are more focused on building attractions than maintaining the natural environment.

"It's a park, why are we removing trees in a park? It seems so counter-intuitive and counter-productive. It's not what's supposed to go on," said Matt Vinet, director of the Prairie chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture.

"I don't think a lot of people realized what was going on."

While the park says it plans to plant hundreds of new trees, in recent years, many decades-old trees have been taken down for developments such as the Qualico Centre, the nature and adventure playground, and the zoo's parking lot.

Canada's Diversity Gardens, as seen in this artist rendering, is the final major phase of the $200-million redevelopment of Assiniboine Park. (assiniboinepark.ca)

And more — upwards of 150 — are expected to be uprooted to make way for the Canada Diversity Gardens, the signature project in the $200-million redevelopment campaign at the park.

The facility is being touted by the park as a place where visitors will learn about sustainability, conservation and nature.

"That's really kind of the opposite of what's going on there," said Vinet. "They're not exactly sustainable when they're a park removing a large number of irreplaceable trees."

He doesn't believe what is happening in Assiniboine Park would occur in other cities, such as Vancouver's Stanley Park, New York City's Central Park or London's Hyde Park.

"You have to have a really good reason to take a tree out," he said, adding there are also repercussions for the ecosystem to consider.

The park's natural drainage patterns are being altered "so trees that used to be in dry lands are now in wetlands and they're not liking it," Vinet said.

He noted that trees in the Hummocks, an area next to the nature playground that consists of grassy knolls and elevated land forms, were damaged by the playground's construction. Large bur oaks suffered root loss and compaction and they were then buried by new soil and sod.

"They are all clearly dying, and the resulting drainage has made a swamp that is killing neighbouring trees," Vinet wrote in an online article for localgardener.net.

"The citizens of Winnipeg should be made aware of this slow erosion of the mature canopy there and should, perhaps, have a say in any future 'development.' I think if more people were aware, development could slow or stop," Vinet wrote.

In a statement sent to CBC News, a spokesperson for the city said its urban forestry branch has met with the Assiniboine Park Conservancy — the agency that manages the park at arm's-length from the city — "to identify compensation requirements for the canopy lost as a result of the recent construction."

It intends to meet with the conservancy again in the fall, the spokesperson said.

"The city never likes to see the removal of mature trees for development purposes. In situations like this, where the urban forest is negatively impacted, the city works with organizations to replace the value of the mature trees lost on public property due to construction."

600 new trees to be planted

Vinet's criticism comes after the company he works for unsuccessfully bid on the contract to cut down the trees in Assiniboine Park, a spokesperson for the park said.

"He himself would've been a part of it if he had won that bid," said Kevin Hunter, Assiniboine Park's senior director of marketing and community engagement.

Vinet denied his company's loss of the bid is the reason behind his concerns.

"I don't think that's the issue here at all," he said. "The issue should be, why are trees being removed here?"

​Gerald Dieleman, project director for the park's Diversity Gardens, said there is a plan to plant some 600 new trees to make up for the 150 that will come down.

"I want to stress that we are always concerned about the natural asset that is Assiniboine Park. That is our number one concern and we do recognize that the removal of any tree is a serious concern," he said.

"The removal of the trees is upsetting for a lot of people but the overall intent, the goal of what we're doing here at the park, is really to improve the diversity and improve the quality of the park. And that, unfortunately, does mean some removals that have happened."

While he applauds the planting of new trees, "there's no way to replace an old, mature tree. It just doesn't happen," Vinet said. "A big 100-year-old elm or an oak, they just don't happen right away.

"I think there's lots of things in the park that should have had more consultation and more sober second thought, like, 'Hey, can we move this over here instead, so we don't have to remove all these trees?'"

Dieleman said it's a tough balance to maintain the old and develop the new in any natural environment, and agreed that every time a tree is removed, the drainage pattern is altered.

But for any new project, they look at the least impactful way of implementing it, he said.