For the trees, that is. For a city that claims to love trees, there are a lot of them marked for death. The chainsaws are slaughtering giant trees at Byng Park in Scarborough as I write this. Trees that provide beauty and shelter and shade and air purification. For no other reason than some petty bureaucrats decided that certain trees are invasive. They write pointless multi-page reports and all the reasons look good on paper, but it is pure sophistry. Tress that grew for over 50 years with no problem, but now they have to go. And not only are they being ruthlessly cut down, but the stumps will also be sprayed with a herbicide (which is a euphemism for poison) to kill the sucker growth that will take over.
So they take our trees, our natural heritage, and give us saplings with shallow root systems that can’t survive drought, and poison. The list of people I want to throw into the lake of fire is growing.
A couple of years ago, this same gang of criminals cut down a number of large trees on the main street near where we live. No reason was given. They weren’t dead (unlike people, trees die slowly). Then, about a month later, full-page ads, paid for by the city, appeared in the bus shelters along the same street, promoting the planting of trees because of their importance to the ecosystem in the city of Toronto! This is psychopathic behaviour.
It’s madness. Our beautiful ravines are under threat. Like many people, I love trees and forests. The loss of these trees makes me feel sick to my stomach, sad, furious and depressed.
It really is the time of the Orcs. God help us. Where is Thoreau when we need him.