HIT AND RUN!

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 18^th, 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)!