Nursing historic trees back to life
Gifts from princes and presidents have been infested by gypsy moth
At the peak of infestation, the trunks of the magnificent trees at Rideau Hall — planted by JFK, the Royal Family, princes and presidents — appeared to be moving.
It was not an illusion.
“It was like something out of Indiana Jones, except it was caterpillars,” says Nicholas Westwood, the NCC's manager of grounds and greenhouses at official residences in the capital.
While the grass on the 80-acre grounds was a healthy green in June, the trees looked like they were living in late fall or midDecember, massively defoliated by a cyclical outbreak of the gypsy moth.
“This year was complete devastation.”
There was acute concern this summer at the home of Canada's governor general, and not just because it is Ottawa's premier address, visited by thousands annually. Among the 10,000 or so trees on the property are 152 ceremonial ones planted by royals, dignitaries and state leaders from around the world. (Indeed, we had tip in July that, only weeks after Prince Philip died in April, his tree was now being eaten alive by nasty intruders.)
“You really do get nervous,” said Westwood, who has the relaxed air of a former golf groundskeeper. “You think, how could these trees possibly come back when you're losing that many leaves? They literally looked like dead trees.”
Well, the good news is, miraculously, the leafy trees (oaks and maples) have bounced back just fine, and the canopy along the main entrance drive looks healthy. But several conifers are suffering and it is unclear if they will survive.
The Boris Yeltsin tree, a Serbian Spruce planted in 1992, looks only slightly more alive than the Russian leader, who died in 2007. The UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's sugar maple, planted in 1997, does look like it hosted a general assembly of very hungry caterpillars.
It is unclear why the gypsy moth, more properly the Lymantria dispar dispar, or LDD — a European invader — was so attracted to the grounds of Rideau Hall, other than the obvious buffet of leaves.
Westwood detailed the dogged efforts NCC staff made to control the pest. There were burlap wraps on the trunks of at least 100 trees, all emptied daily of thousands of caterpillars. They used tools and shop-vacs to remove spongy egg clusters, and arborists even scaled some upper limbs to control the pest.
“One day, I had three guys way up in one tree.”
Many of the more prized oak trees were also injected with TreeAzin, an insecticide. Still, the infestation advanced, to the point you could actually hear the leaves being eaten, and moths and debris were falling on the heads of tour guides.
“I've never seen anything like that in my career.”
Understandably, the NCC babies the ceremonial trees, each marked with a plaque. And, nature being what it is, they don't always survive. There is, for instance, a tree planted by the Queen Mother in 1939. But today's sugar maple wouldn't be 10 metres tall, evidence that, indeed, it was not the one she planted.
The Trumans both planted trees in 1947. The U.S. president's maple is tiny compared to the mature tree planted by his wife, Elizabeth, indicating the original tree did not survive. (The Ice Storm of 1998, too, did significant damage to Rideau Hall's trees, as it did nearly everywhere in eastern Ontario.)
While the trees are themselves living reminders of the departed, some are the basis of unexpected historical twists.
President John F. Kennedy seriously aggravated an old back injury while he worked spadefuls of dirt during the planting of his red oak in May 1961.
The chronic injury forced JFK to use a back brace and take pain medication. Local history detective Andrew King once speculated in print that the wearing of the brace in Dallas in 1963 may have affected JFK's ability to recoil after he was struck by the first bullet in that fateful motorcade.
(It was not just mischievous guesswork — American surgeons, reviewing medical records, have posited the same theory about the brace holding JFK upright for the second bullet to the head.)
Westwood says it's too early to know what may happen to the dozen or so ceremonial trees — mostly conifers — that were badly hit by the gypsy moth.
“We're not making any drastic decisions,” he said. “We will wait until next season to see how they recover.”
We know from past infestations, which tend to break out every seven to 10 years, that healthy trees do recover, though possibly in a weakened state. (The province reports the first instance of the moth in Ontario in 1969, but no widespread defoliation until 1981.)
The first ceremonial tree was planted in 1906, the last in 2019 by the president of Croatia. The Queen has planted the most
(five) and, among other notable royals, Charles and Diana planted a pin oak in 1983.
It, as trees are meant to, outlived her.
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-291-6265 or email kegan@ postmedia.com
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