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The Daily Photoist: November 9, 2009
Toronto has been experiencing some unusual flooding and freaky precipitation today, and residents of 67 Gloucester Street are going to be in for a surprise when they get home from work.
This afternoon, a giant maple tree on the north side of the street cracked in half and fell, smashing windows at 67 Gloucester across the street, crushing a Chrysler Neon, and scraping a pedestrian. Witnesses told Torontoist that they heard a gigantic crack, and when the tree landed, a family of raccoons scattered out of a hole in the trunk. The incident is reminiscent of a more significant incident last month where a rotted tree that residents had repeatedly asked the City to remove crushed a house on Coxwell Avenue.
The inside of the ancient tree was entirely hollow and filled with peanut shells(!), and one resident who was unable to enter his apartment lamented the loss of the old tree from his view of the street. Gloucester was closed by police and there is no word yet on the damage.
More photos after the jump.
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Now we know what Maple trees think of White Oak.
(or maybe it says something else)
When I lived on Spadina Ave., we had a maple on the property which was about 70 years old. One day several city people were examining the tree and saying that it had to come down. I protested in a civil way but they said it was diseased and was ready to topple at any time.
Several days later, I came home just as the city crew was clearing up and they showed me that the trunk of the tree was not solid but had turned into a type of meal or sawdust. The tree was rotting from the inside. The tree had about 8 cm of actual wood and bark going around the permimeter and the rest of the inside was this sort of meal or sawdust-like granular material.
They were right. It was probably the exhaust fumes of all those cars and all the diesel buses (before the resinstated streetcar) that did it in.
Then there was the Norway maple behind the house that had a limb break off and collapse the roof of a VW convertible. But that's another story.
Seriously, take a walk through Leaside after any rain storm or minor winds--the maple trees there (about, what, 40-50 years old) have been losing branches (huge branches!!) at a redic high rate.
I've never seen anything like it before--dare I suggest something other than high winds could be causing the demise of the city's maple trees?
Is there an inventory the city maintains that is accessible to the public and that outlines the state of our city's big old trees (and those that are slated for removal or replacement)?