National Post (National Edition)
If a tree is decorated in the forest, they will come
Yuletide spirit can’t be doused by officialdom
The pluckiest little Christmas protest in Canada began on Dec. 1 with a single decorated tree alongside a dirt trail in Heber Down, a conservation area north of Whitby, Ont., where the bedroom communities east of Toronto finally give over to farmland.
Stephen Morgan, who came to Canada in 1977 from Newcastle, England, and runs 10-kilometre loops through these woods with his running group, the Heber Down Trail Dawgs, has been doing this for half a dozen years, having inherited the tradition from another local club.
“It just puts smiles on people’s faces,” he said.
“We love the area so much we want to do something for the people.”
The first big snowfall made for a good photograph of the tree on Facebook. So word got out about this lushly decorated living conifer, about six feet tall, with balls, an owl, and shiny silver bells at the top, at the crest of a hill in the middle of the woods.
It was not to last. Fearing the litter that will be left in January, and having not received any official request for permission, the Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority (CLOCA) ordered staff to clear it all away.
It decided the decorations “severely impacted” the balance they aim to strike between environmental priorities and public use.
“Our staff are removing them now to reduce the hazard and remind people that any type of activity of this nature requires communication and permission,” said a CLOCA spokesperson.
But while you can take tinsel and balls off a tree in a forest, the Christmas spirit is a little harder to take down.
It was only a matter of days before other trees were decorated in a similar fashion. So today, if you drive to where Country Lane dead ends at a locked gate, walk down the road as it changes from asphalt to dirt, then take the Devil’s Den trail up into the trees, you will come to a hilltop clearing. There you will see fully 14 trees decorated for the season, lining the path as far as you can see, like a jolly Yuletide array of evergreen middle fingers to the Grinch.
“It seems to be taking on a life of its own,” Morgan said.
A charmingly passive aggressive letter was hung on one of them, tucked safely into a clear freezer bag.
“CLOCA took down all the decorations on Monday Dec. 17,” it said, but “fellow responsible decorators” put them back up.
“Hopefully CLOCA will let us enjoy them, until we take them down after Christmas!”
All this was done in the last few days, according to Stephanie Benincasa, who was taking photos of the trees on Thursday and also passed by a week ago, both times with her dog, a Christmas rescue called Holly.
Whoever did it, whether elf or human, remains a mystery.
The only clue, which the National Post was unable to chase down by deadline, is the name of a girl on one ornament shaped like an angel and painted blue by a child’s hand.
Others have obviously come from some family’s box of old decorations, unlike the Trail Dawgs’ original decorations, which came new from a store.
Some are homemade and dated six, even nine years ago. Some have fallen to the ground, but none look like they have been there more than a few days.
CLOCA has given permission to decorate trees in the past, in return for a promise to clean up in January, said Patricia Lowe, director of community engagement.
But that has not happened, and the result is brightly coloured shards of shattered plastic that are a hazard to animals and an annoyance to visitors.
“When people see the decorated tree, they imitate the activity and then we have several decorated trees. Again, lovely to look at, but it results in bags of waste including tinsel and shattered bulbs, which require countless hours of cleanup by our staff and complaints from other trail users,” she said.
“We would suggest a community park or the grounds around local hospitals as better locations for this festive activity.”
Morgan said he has always intended to clean up the decorations in January, but in his experience, they are already gone by the time he goes to do it.
“We want to be friends of Heber Down,” he said.