More than 50 participants spent Friday Nov 9, learning how to celebrate and protect Heritage Trees in Ontario
The full day workshop included a number of speakers who explained the value of Heritage Trees, how to nominate a tree for consideration under the Ontario Heritage Tree program and, thanks to Jim Leonard from the Ontario Heritage Trust, how to do the cultural research needed to advocate for legal protection for heritage trees under the Ontario Heritage Act. Mary Johnstone from Dundas provided a first hand account of how her organization nominated 2 special trees.
Philip Van Wassenaer’s power point rounded out the day with current thoughts on how we can best care for heritage trees — a process called conservation aboriculture.
A half dozen workshop delegates participated in a field exercise on Single Tree Evaluation Instrument proficiency and achieved successful certification. This afternoon session was led by Peter Dmytrasz, OUFCAdvisor, and Jack Radecki, OUFC Executive Director, on the U of T grounds and included trees at the Hart House sports field and along Philosopher’s Walk. Participants put to good use the pictorial presentation provided earlier in the day, along with toolkit information, to score ratings in all ten charts of under five categories of the evaluation instrument. Group discussions at selected trees were followed by paired assessments and ended with individual evaluations. All expressed their gratitude at their decision to participate in this exercise, which ended with the onset of twilight. There will be opportunities for additional certification sessions throughout the province, commencing next year in April for Windsor and in June for Hamilton’s Royal Botanical Gardens.
Heritage Tree Workshop presented by OUFC, Trees Ontario & our local partner LEAF
Thank you to The U of T Faculty of Forestry for supporting this venture by providing us with a great venue.
