I appreciate the reminder in the April 18 letter to the editor (“Poplar removal program needs to be reconsidered,” St. Albert Gazette) to speak up for the trees. I guess sometimes I simply give up pleading or reasoning with city hall when nobody listens.
For years, I have argued for a protective tree bylaw in St. Albert, have documented vandalism, for example, that destroyed many of the ancient giants in the White Spruce Forest and argued for the protection of the area. The damage is done and cannot be remediated. Many years ago, after witnessing the pointless destruction of a stand of three-foot-diameter trees at the east side of St. Albert —it was called “brush clearing”— I wrote a letter to the editor, “If you are a tree in St. Albert, pick up your roots and run.” It seems long weekends were often chosen to do the dirty deeds — nobody around one could call to complain.
A few years ago, before the current culling of poplars, a lot of mature poplars along Giroux Road were cut down, more recently also in Lacombe Park. A friend went door to door to ask residents to get in touch with the city to stop the killing. She found out that many residents she talked to had complained to the city about having to rake up the leaves and asked for the trees to be removed. I wish I would get that kind of prompt reaction when I plead for our Sturgeon River.
I could cry when I see the pointless slaughter of the trees along our boulevards. I get utterly frustrated at the refusal of the city to convince homeowners to destroy the black knot-infested prunus trees on their properties to try to slow down the spread of the highly-contagious disease to all the beautiful chokecherry, Schubert chokecherry and mayday trees that used to adorn many of our streets and parks for us to enjoy and to feed the birds.
I guess our taxes can always pay to plant new trees along our roadsides.
There is only one mayday tree left in my street, the one in front of my house. I nurse it, but I know it will not last long. All the others were diseased and had to be cut down this past winter and their trunks stand there like decapitated and dismembered human bodies.
Elke Blodgett, St. Albert
