"I am appealing to you once again on behalf of residents who would like to believe they walk through Bilberry Creek ravine in safety. The matter of the perilously cracked old pine leaning over a major trail has still not yet been resolved.

Whoever it is at the municipality who assigns priorities in public safety has fallen asleep at the job. Several weeks back it was clear that the location of the tree in question was assured, since a large red “X” appeared on it. Since then, no action has been taken to remove its potential threat. And its threat becomes more ‘potential’ as time goes on. When the winds are high and we are in the vicinity of that tree we can hear it creaking, and that sound gives warning that it will give way before long. If it does so while someone is proceeding up and down the hill on which it stands, hanging over the trail, the result will be catastrophic.

It’s hard to imagine why it hasn’t been recognized as a dire threat by those assigned to remove such impediments to public safety. A short few weeks ago a birch much reduced in girth to this one, which had fallen well off the path and was resting at a level that could be of no threat to any creature save a squirrel, was cut neatly into pieces. But not this overhanging pine.

Please find attached the latest photographs I have taken of the tree in question. Once again, I ask your assistance in ensuring that the matter will be taken care of, expeditiously."

 

This, the fourth and last of the emails that I had sent both to our city councillor (who happens also to be deputy mayor), finally achieved results. The morning of the day following my having contacted them (yesterday) I received an assurance from the individual heading the Forestry Section that in several days' time the matter would be resolved. My councillor responded mere moments after having received my email.

Yesterday just happened to be the height of Indian Summer this year, the temperature soared to 20 degrees, there was a lovely breeze and the sun hung beneficently in a clear blue sky. When we neared the area which led us to the hill we would ascend where that poor old pine had met its end, I could see from a near distance that the area looked different. And sure enough, as we approached it was evident that the tree and the threat it posed had been removed. Parts of the trunk lay strewn alongside the trail, its girth making it evident that it was an elderly specimen. It was, in fact, a tree that for years I had noted for its almost-perpendicular lean. That frailty, no doubt due to prevailing winds over the years of its maturity, led to its cracking in a high wind-and-rain storm that occurred several months ago.

It's a relief to us and to many area trail-walkers to have the threat removed. After I sent final emails both to our city councilman and the public works department, thanking them for applying themselves so helpfully to removing this public threat, our representative on city council, responded, thanking me for thanking them.