The city has tough rules to protect trees from the ravages of construction, but obeying them seems to be for other people.

To ensure that trees are not damaged by construction, it requires protection zones to be put up around trees, in the form of wooden barriers that create a buffer from the work.

Toronto’s urban forestry department is responsible for enforcing tree protection bylaws, but it relies on other city departments to observe the rules when they undertake construction.

That definitely hasn’t happened on Bailey Cr. and several nearby streets, where new curb and sidewalk construction and road resurfacing has been ongoing since last month.

Megan O’Connor sent us a note that included photos of tree roots damaged by sidewalk replacement on Bailey, asking why the city isn’t observing its own tree protection rules.

“As a homeowner, if I were to launch a construction project, I would need to comply with the municipal code,” said O’Connor, who quoted the following regulation: ‘Prohibited activities. No person shall bury the roots, mark, cut, break, peel or deface any part of a tree.’

“My understanding is that the code applies to everyone — not just residents.”

She went on to say that over the past six weeks, she’s watched construction excavation equipment used just centimetres away from healthy, mature trees, with roots “hacked during the process.”

When it started, she wrote to 311 and her city councillor, to ask if “best practices were being followed, and/or if more could be done,” but she has yet to get an answer.

STATUS: We passed along her note to urban forestry and was copied on a reply from Andrew Pickett, a policy and project adviser, who said a staffer from compliance and enforcement would be sent to investigate. We went back Thursday and found an urban forestry official talking to O’Connor in front of her house. He confirmed that many violations could be found on Bailey and surrounding streets, but said it’s an uphill struggle when other city departments don’t follow the rules. We’ll be monitoring the situation over the next week to see what happens.

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