Tree of the Week showcases some of the biggest and most beautiful trees in the GTA, as compiled by Megan Ogilvie. Here, Warren Hoselton, parks supervisor for Toronto Island Park, tells us about an enormous Scotch elm on Centre Island that welcomes close to a million island visitors every year.

I would like to introduce you to my favourite Toronto Island tree, the Centre Island Scotch Elm.

It’s a beast of a tree with a massive canopy, tall and wide.

Native to northern and central Europe, as well as western Asia, Scotch elms are sometimes known as “wych” elms or “witch” elms, a name derived from an old English term meaning pliant.

This particular Scotch elm — I sometimes call him Scotty the Elm — has a circumference of 3.12 metres (10 feet, 3 inches) measured at breast height and is well over 24 metres (80 feet) tall.

My best guess is that this tree is more than 125 years old. It’s hard to miss as it grows near Centre Island’s main pathway, about 100 metres away from the Centre Island ferry dock.

I have been the parks supervisor for Toronto Island Park for the past 20 years. Recently, I was playing with some numbers in my head and came up with these estimates: The Toronto Island Park gets more than 1.4 million visitors per year. Of that total, at least 60 per cent come and go via the Centre Island ferry. So, by those numbers, more than 800,000 people pass under this tree’s canopy each year.

That means, in the past 50 years, more people have passed under the massive canopy of Scotty the Elm than the entire 2019 population of Canada. Likely, most visitors pass under its canopy without even looking up and noticing what a grand tree it really is. I hope this story makes more people stop to appreciate it.

Although there are still a few good specimens in Toronto, including one at Queen’s Park and one on the CNE grounds, near Lakeshore Ave. W., this Scotch elm is one of the few remaining of its size in Toronto. The city no longer plants Scotch elms because of the species’ susceptibility to Dutch elm disease, the deadly fungus that has, since the 1960s, killed nearly all the elms in North America.

I’m happy to say this Scotch elm is still healthy and happy, especially since some island trees have recently had a rough time. In the past two years, we have lost dozens of beautiful specimen trees due to high water levels in Lake Ontario. There was flooding in 2017 and again this year from May to August.

Some species of trees, including tulip trees and sugar maples, simply could not take the high water levels for such an excessive length of time. Trees cannot cope without accessible oxygen and nitrogen in their soils, and too much water will deplete those critical elements, leaving the trees unable to function.

My passion for trees goes all the way back to the late 1970s and my high school years when I worked at a tree farm near Port Hope. During the 1990s, I was one of two urban forestry supervisors for the old Metro municipal government. I’m also an internationally certified arborist.

These days, caring for the trees at the Toronto Island Park keeps my tree passion alive. I also enjoy speaking to school children about how trees work, what they do for our environment and how they make us feel.

Since 2010, I’ve travelled all over North America as a tree educator, performing as Professor Elwood Pricklethorn. I hope my presentations help kids to realize just how much trees help us and to look at trees differently.

Of the many hundreds of trees in my care, this Scotch elm is among my favourites. During my daily commute on the ferry to Toronto Island Park, I look for its tall canopy, no matter the season.

I hope this elm will stand tall and proud for many more years, continuing to serve as my beacon across the harbour.

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Correction - September 19, 2019: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said the 125-year-old Scotch elm has a diameter of 3.12 metres. In fact, that is the tree’s circumference at breast height.

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