Montreal readies to cut massive trees in La Fontaine Park to protect public

CBC News

· Posted: Apr 10, 2025 6:46 PM EDT | Last Updated: 5 minutes ago

Montreal's La Fontaine Park has immoderate of the city's oldest trees. They are Carolina poplars that person been astir since the 1920s, earlier the country was a nationalist park. 

Fifty metres gangly and much than a metre wide, they service arsenic a location to squirrels and birds. They springiness shadiness to the children's playground, oregon those retired for a quiescent stroll done the iconic greenish space.

But metropolis engineers say, aft much than a century, these trees are astatine the extremity of their beingness rhythm and person to travel down.

Guillaume Couture, a forestry technologist with the city, showed CBC News immoderate of the wellness problems the trees face, specified arsenic fungal maturation that is degrading the carnal and chemic prime of the wood.

"In this tree, you tin spot a cavity astatine the branch," helium said pointing to 1 of the reaching arms of a thick-barked poplar.

Using peculiar radar tools, engineers were capable to spot the wood wrong has rotted away. Couture said that means parts of the histrion could drawback off, injuring radical beneath — thing that is not unheard of successful a cityscape known for its ample and aging trees.

One infamous lawsuit occurred successful August 2006. Gabriel Rossy, 27, was successful the driver's spot of his parked car connected Côte-des-Neiges Road successful Westmount during a convulsive tempest erstwhile an aged poplar crashed down onto his vehicle. He died.

The coroner's study connected Rossy's decease confirmed the histrion was rotten and said the mishap was preventable.

Public information prioritized 

Seven 100-year-old poplar trees successful La Fontaine Park were chopped for information concerns successful 2016. The twelvemonth before, immoderate branches fell. No 1 was hurt, but an probe into the incidental recovered they needed to beryllium cut.

Of the 20 past poplars successful the parkland now, workers volition chopped down six by April 22. Then different 2 wrong 3 years. The twelve near volition person their branches pruned. 

Noor Mahfouz, a scenery designer with the city, said it's not a determination Montreal takes lightly. 

"It's hard for america to chopped them. But erstwhile it comes to the information of our population, we prioritize it. So it's thing we person to do," Mahfouz said.

Workers chopped down astir 30 trees a twelvemonth successful La Fontaine Park, but they are usually not this large and noticeable. 

Larger felling cognition 6 years ago

In May 2019, residents of the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough who unrecorded adjacent the parkland were serenaded by chainsaws for respective days arsenic crews chopped down 4.3 per cent of the park's trees.

In that case, it was trees that were damaged during the crystal tempest of 1998. Workers had made an effort to dilatory their decline, but yet they needed cutting.

At that time, the trees came down with mixed emotions, arsenic immoderate residents agreed it was a nationalist information hazard portion others were bittersweet to spot the trees cut.

There person been cases of residents protesting histrion cutting, but Couture said the metropolis wants to get up of those concerns — putting retired notices and posts online. Eventually, they volition each person to beryllium chopped down, helium said.

"But we're going to beryllium definite that, erstwhile we are forced to chopped it down, that we person nary prime but to bash it," helium said.

Nowadays, determination are astir 3,300 trees successful the park, mostly maple and oaks. There are immoderate chestnut and hazelnut trees, and of course, the poplars. While much than 230 trees person been chopped since 2019, 238 person been planted.

The metropolis plans to replant reddish oaks successful the fall, which are autochthonal to Quebec and request small upkeep. But it volition instrumentality decades for them to turn and scope the heights of the poplars.