If you are sickened at the thought of a 250 yr old oak tree being cut to

[Hoping4Change]

make room for a road widening please send an email denouncing plans to destroy this old but HEALTHY tree. The brain-dead politicans who want it chopped down to save money might think twice if friends (otherwise known as potential tourists) from south of the 49th registered their disgust.

To express your dismay at plans to destroy this 250 year old tree please email

Gary Carr,Regional Chair at [e-mail]


FYI Councillor Allan Elgara, a staunch conservationist is fighting to save the three so please cc him at [e-mail] .



http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.200612...

[formerrepuke]

1. As if North America isn't paved over enough, already.... anything that

can survive that long (fauna OR flora) deserves a break.

[JeffR]

2. Done. Thank you H4C

I once lived in Oakville, and what has been done to the town in recent decades under the pathetic stewardship of Anne Mulvale and her brain-dead-trust is truly sickening.

[Hoping4Change]

15. Thanks JeffR. What's worse is that this is one of the last oak

trees in Oakville. FYI in Nov Mulvale got booted out as mayor

[JeffR]

18. I was delighted to hear she got turfed

Coincidentally, I was in downtown & Old Oakville this afternoon. Nice to see the heart of the town hasn't suffered too much from ill-advised development. Yet anyway.

You're dead right about the scarcity of oaks. Anyday now they can change the name of the town to Ville. It'll be much more descriptive of the state of things there.

[rpgamerd00d]

3. A forest, sure. But 1 tree? Sorry.

Why is it that it would be fine to cut it down if it was 10 years old, but not 250?
What is the human fascination with old stuff?

The way I see it, its the tress (plural) that are cut for the sake of expansion that is the bad thing, not a controversy over, literally, 1 tree.

[Cleita]

4. Oak trees take decades to mature. Most of the full grown

oak trees you see in California are a hundred years plus. It's not like pine that can grown pretty tall in five years. So many of them have already been destroyed for development that each and every tree saved is a part of our environment that has been saved.

Also, wild trees in California have adapted to survive during our long droughts in the summer months. Our rainy season is really short, so it's not like our oak tree savannahs as they are called, renew themselves very quickly. They are part of our watershed too that controls erosion through the rainy seasons. When you pave over their habitat you change the nature of the soil and even the climate at times. Erosion is always a problem.

[sandnsea]

5. So do evergreens

These don't get like this in 5 years, it takes 5-10 years to grow an average 6-8 ft Christmas tree.

http://images.google.com/url?q=http://mirror.greatoutdo...

So anyway, we do need to protect the older trees, all of them - there aren't that many left.

[Cleita]

7. Well, not all species. I have a Monterrey pine that I planted

five years ago when I moved in here and it's already more than thirty feet high. I believe there are other species of pine that grow pretty quickly too. It's your hardwood trees, like Cedar, Oak, Redwood and well you know that are really slow growing and should be harvested very slowly.

[jmowreader]

19. Cedar and redwood are both softwoods

Slow-growing softwoods, but softwoods nonetheless.

Softwood comes from needle-leaf trees; hardwood from broadleaf trees.

[Cleita]

21. Cedar?

Never. Redwoods I know have to age.

[Canuckistanian]

10. Also, it's the oldest OAK tree in OAKVILLE, Ontario

It has a symbolic value to the town. My aunt and uncle live there.

[Hoping4Change]

16. Approaching a tree we approach a sacred being.

"Approaching a tree we approach a sacred being who can
teach us about love and about endless giving.
She is one of millions of beings who provide our air,
our homes, our fuel, our books. Working with
the spirit of the tree can bring us renewed energy,
powerful inspiration, deep communion."

- Druid Tree Lore, Ovate Grade lecture


This quote says more eloquently than I could ever say why one beautiful majestic oak should be treasured.

[Union Thug]

6. We hate public transportation!

We would much rather sit forever in gridlock in our fantastic gas guzzlers, forever building more and more roads, highways and interstates to accomodate this 'uniquely' american self-indulgence.

Keep on paving, America!

[The Stranger]

8. k&r

[B Calm]

9. We need solar powered flying cars

[madokie]

11. several years back we had a big red oak tree go down in a storm

when I cut the snag left standing down I counted the growth rings, 168 of those buggers. there were some spread out and then some real closely spaced.

[roguevalley]

12. done. that tree is older than our country.

[Hoping4Change]

17. Thanks roguevalley.

[buddysmellgood]

13. Next the people of Libertyville will incarcerate their seniors. Watertown will poison

it's own wells. In Dickyville they're about to...well let's not talk about Dickyville. If money and traffic flow are more important to those people than community and identity, then cut the mother down.

[Ksec]

14. a 250 year old anything has the right to exist.

Im a tree hugger, and I paint trees as a hobby. A 250 year old landmark such as this should get the right of way. Go around the tree . Do NOT touch this wonderful speciman. To do so would be criminal

[Rosemary2205]

20. YOU MUST PURCHASE THIS ARTICLE

can you provide more info? Where is this? Why is the road being widened? Who is spearheading the tree saving project?

[Hoping4Change]

23. This is strange because when I googled "roots of dissent"

the entire article comes up. How strange is that? The following link is to the effort to save the tree.

http://www.halton.ca/savethetree/

[G Hawes]

26. The previous link you posted was to a Globe and Mail article ...

which remains free to all on the day of the publication but after a certain number of days, the Globe stories are archived and are only available for free to subscribers. You posted the link long after the original publication, thus the subscriber-only access to it by the time you posted the link.

[G Hawes]

22. Looks like the tree got a reprieve.

The majestic 250-year-old oak tree near Halton regional headquarters will be spared the axe.

The tree stands on Bronte Road and is in the way of a $6.4 million road- widening project. A citizens' group has been struggling since June to raise the $343,000 it will cost to re-route the road around the tree.

But even though the group is about $90,000 short of its goal and the original deadline is tomorrow, the tree is guaranteed a reprieve.

Regional council's planning and public works committee voted yesterday to extend the deadline until March 31. Halton Councillor Allan Elgar, who made the motion, said that if the goal is still not reached, the region will kick in the difference.

"This gives us 100 per cent assurance that the tree will remain where it is and the road will go around it," said the Oakville councillor.

http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServe...

Well done!

[Hoping4Change]

24. The problem is that the Regional Head is still not convinced

that the tree is worth saving so if the remaining money can't be raised the tree will come down. I believe that the region should make up any shortfall. I am hoping that if Americans email their disgust the Regional Council will sit up and take notice since tourism is a key component of the region's bottomline.

[G Hawes]

25. Hmmm

I'm sorry but I don't think that emails from the U.S. will have any impact on the Regional Chairman if that's what you meant. It appears that the tree has been saved and it appears that it's already a done deal as local input has perservered, though, and that is certainly a terrific result.

[Hoping4Change]

27. Tree saved thanks to international and national response.

Given that we seldom know whether activism is worth the effort, I wanted to let you know that the 250 yr old oak tree will be saved thanks to people who sent an email.

- "Saying people were touched from around the world, the mayor of Oakville has announced a 250-year old tree has been saved from the chainsaws. Tree lovers were given six months to raise the 343-thousand dollars that was needed to divert the road around the tree." (AM900 CHML)

It seems that emails came in from all over the world including a letter from Prince Charles. With all this attention the regional and provincial decided to pony up the remaining $75,000 needed to save the tree.