By Harold G.
LeBoeuf
I never thought
that I would see
So much damage to
our trees.
With my most
sincere apologies to Mr. Joyce Kilmer
It
wasn’t bad enough that John Micelli, Director of Windsor Parks and Recreation,
came up with a fanciful plan supported by completely false facts and rational
to complete ten foot plus wide asphalt roadways in Willistead Park thereby
destroying a city gem, now he has deployed personnel to manicure the grass on
the city’s boulevards surrounding Willistead (a normal weekly procedure in the
grass growing seasons). But this time, the person operating the large machine
not suited for the purpose, apparently threw caution and common sense to the
wind and decided to play “bumper cars” with all of the trees circling the park.
The ensuing result was that many of the trees sustained damage, some severe
damage, and all were left with the tell-tale paint scraped off of the equipment
in the process. Additionally, grass near several trees was scraped away leaving
nothing but bare ground with exposed and damaged lateral absorbing tree roots.
Yes, those roots were damaged as well like those in the park itself.
You
might think that this was the end of the stupidity, but guess again. Someone
else followed with a gasoline operated “weed-whacker” and used it in such a
manner as to create additional damage to the base of the trees and their
exposed roots.
John
Micelli will probably say that this was completely accidental. Nonsense! At the
very best, this was the improper use of equipment not designed for that
specific purpose due to its size and configuration and/or the employment of
persons lacking the proper training, abilities and good common sense for the
task at hand. At the very worst one gets the impression when surveying the
damage, that the operators of both pieces of equipment were stoned by the use
of drugs and/or alcohol. It’s difficult to imagine another cause that doesn’t
involve sheer negligence and culpable behaviour.
And
where were the supervisors of these individuals? Does anyone inspect the work
performed to determine whether or not something is amiss? One need only go to
the first tree to determine that something was indeed wrong.
Traditionally
during grass growing periods of the year, the grass on the boulevards has been
trimmed using gasoline powered push mowers. That is the equipment of choice for
that type of operation. Was this another fanciful brain-storm to substitute
inappropriate machinery to do the job?
As
will be set out in later articles, something is truly awry at the Department of
Parks and Recreation, and it is well beyond time for changes to be made.
When
one considers what has transpired with Willistead Park, this is the one time and
the one time only (and it should be recorded) that John Micelli and Steven
Marshall with all of their hype and misinformation about the plans for
Willistead Park wagged the tail of Mayor Eddie, and for the very first time it
wasn’t the other way around.
I
am including several photographs depicting the damage to the trees occasioned
on Friday, July 18th, 2014. Regretfully space does not allow the
inclusion of pictures for all of the trees. Perhaps a walk around the exterior
of the park could be added to the Annual Tour of Walkerville.
In
the meantime, who is going to tend to those trees that suffered significant
damage to their cambium cell layer and their sapwood, so necessary for water
moving up to their leaves. How about it, John. Are you going to get someone out
there with horticultural tar to mend the damage, or are you just going to let
nature take its course and hope for the best outcome? I’m guessing the latter.
Harold
G. LeBoeuf
AND MANY, MANY
MORE (SAD TO SAY)!
