Parents cry foul over lost trees, shrubs
Group says they expected changes at St. Rita in fall
At St. Rita Catholic School, the parents and children planted $25,000 worth of trees and shrubs. It was a “greening” plan aimed at bringing shade to the schoolyard, relief from flat, sun-baked grass and asphalt.
Now the Ottawa Catholic School Board has had to remove five trees after transplanting and damaging them, and has ripped out all of the shrubs, damaging more trees in the process.
Two new trees stand in place of the ones removed this week.
Workers have spread new asphalt over much of the yard, meanwhile, and are preparing to lay sod where the shrubs used to be. And two mature trees at the edge of the yard have come down.
After four years of work, the parents and their ecological consultant are crying foul.
They knew some trees would be moved, but expected the work in the fall, when there’s less stress on the trees.
And they say the shrub removal and the damage to remaining trees — mainly trunks where the bark is cut or peeled off — was a complete surprise.
And they say the effect is less shade for the children, a return to old-fashioned barren schoolyard design and broken trust with the board.
The board, meanwhile, says it consulted the parents, and promises it will rectify problems when trees die.
The school is on Inverness Avenue, beside Fisher Avenue in Carleton Heights.
The St. Rita story represents a common theme in urban forestry: Young trees are planted with the best of intentions, only to be sliced by snowplows or mowers, killed by salt or moved from place to place.
When trees follow this pattern, they are often replaced over and over like annuals and don’t get a chance to grow.
For parent Wendy Burpee, the St. Rita campaign began with a group of trees in 2009, and another group in 2011 for a total of 33 young shade trees.
There was a variety of species — four types of maple, locust, ginkgo, hackberry and serviceberry, among others, all growing well.
She was resigned to seeing a few of the trees transplanted in fall, but she didn’t expect the midsummer move and the damage that ultimately killed them.
And she says it was a waste of money — about $5,000 for the original trees that are now dead, plus replanting costs. (A maple planted this week still has the nursery’s $399 price tag attached.)
The shrubs took “thousands of hours” to plant and water.
“We don’t see that this was all done for the students,” she said. “It shows a terrible example to the children ... a lack of caring for what they did.”
The children had planted many of the shrubs.
The trees had survived for several years with hardly any damage, she said.
She was looking forward to planting flowers and possibly a vegetable garden next but “will refuse to do anything further until there’s clear discussion with the Catholic school board. There’s been a break in the trust because we have written approvals every step of the way” for the trees and shrubs and raised beds to support them. “And still with approvals, this has happened.”
“The trees were moved at the worst time of the year when the canopy was in full leaf,” Coffey said. And she said removing the shrubs and protective caging around trees that were not moved exposes them to all kinds of accidental damage.
“What a waste of public and private funding,” she concluded.
Money for the planting came from the City of Ottawa, TD Friends of the Environment, Toyota Evergreen Fund, Metro supermarkets and the Lone Star restaurant.
OCSB communications officer Mardi de Kemp said Monday that her understanding is that the principal and school council understood the summer work and “heartily supported” it.
“If there are difficulties, if there are trees that die as a result of the approved project, then they will deal with those as they arrive and rectify them.”
She said that probably means replacing any trees that die.
“Our planning and facilities department has a very long record of giving very good service and making sure that the contract doesn’t end ... until everybody’s happy.”