In the background as I write this is the loud, incessant whir of a mulching machine, grinding up the branches and trunk of yet another healthy, magnificent, Braeside-area pine tree. In my two-block radius, at least six of these have been taken down in the past year – three on one property alone!
I am not only heartbroken, but appalled that our "botanical" city can allow homeowners to be the sole decision-makers regarding the fate of the trees that have stood since long before any of us arrived in St. Albert.
The homeowners say, "I don't like the pine needles falling on my vehicle," or, "There are too many birds and they poop all over," and, "The trees grow too big. I want something newer." Really!? Let's cut down a living, healthy, lovely, century-old tree for the sake of the finish on your vehicle?
When I phoned the city I was told that if the trees are on private property there is nothing that can be done.
I would like to see the city impose some sort of limit on clear-cutting in our communities, particularly when we are talking about perfectly healthy trees. Could there not be some guidelines about when, and under what conditions, a healthy tree over a certain age can be taken down? Along with the cost of cutting down and mulching trees, perhaps homeowners should be required to fund the planting of trees elsewhere in the city to replace those they are removing, or pay a compensatory fine for altering the landscape of a community so dramatically.
Not only do the trees help all of us by stabilizing the soil, cleaning the air, and giving life and shelter to numerous organisms and animals, trees add to the overall beauty, health, and feel of a community. The presence of trees is one of the primary reasons we moved to St. Albert in general, and to Braeside in particular. We all worry about property values. Well, mine has just been depleted ten-fold, if not monetarily, certainly aesthetically.
Trees that have stood nearly a century should not be the property of any one homeowner, and should be protected by all of us.
Carol J. Vogler, St. Albert
