Wellington Street resident Diane Ogrodnik is glad it was raining last Thursday when she discovered the patch of healthy, established poplar trees in her neighbourhood had been clear-cut.
“I was crying and people couldn’t tell,” Ogrodnik said, who walked past the trees every day on Queen Street. “It’s a tragedy in our neighbourhood.”
The old poplars were cut down at one of 10 construction sites that have begun popping up as the Regional Municipality of York begins what it calls significant and urgent work to upgrade Newmarket’s sewer system.
The $110.6-million York-Durham sewage system forcemain twinning project, as it's known, will see a second pressurized sewage pipe installed alongside the Town’s existing forcemain. The work is expected to be completed in fall 2021.
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Many of Ogrodnik’s neighbours knew the forcemain twinning project was coming through, she said, but they were “blindsided” nonetheless as no one recalled receiving a notice about the trees coming down near the construction site, located at Queen and Charles streets.
“The neighbours are in shock,” Ogrodnik said. “You can imagine how shocked everyone was when they woke up, looked across the street and now see a parking lot and the crematorium.”
Ogrodnik said the poplars were “workhorses, they were filters, noise reducers, reduced heat from intense sun, and just plain beautiful”.
“I would lie in my bed and see them through my bedroom window, they would glisten when they waved in the wind, and for years and years I could do that,” she added.
“This affects the whole neighbourhood. I talk to my neighbours all the time, and everyone is impacted negatively by this,” Ogrodnik said. “No one said, ‘Oh, this is progress. Nobody said, ‘Maybe it was a good idea’. No, of course not. It’s a negative impact that affects this whole block.”
Ogrodnik’s neighbour, Dave Kempton, who is a climate change presenter and photographer, raced down to the site Thursday to take photos when he learned about the clear-cutting.
It was too late as he arrived just before noon. All that was left was a pile of shavings from the old poplars, some with trunks about 76 cm in diameter, Kempton said, and some Manitoba scrub trees by the river bed.
“We went by the poplars several times a week on our way to fitness classes,” said Kempton, who lives on Poplar Lane. “There are boreholes in the area already. But there’s one of the Southlake parking lots near there, it’s all ground level, right on Davis Drive, prime real estate, and it’s a complete waste of space,” he said. “Surely they could have moved what they’re doing 30 metres and do it on a portion of the parking lot.”
A York Region spokesperson confirmed the tree removal is part of the forcemain twinning project in work area 4, at Queen and Charles streets.
In total, 34 trees were removed to accommodate the shaft installation and work staging area.
“The Region will be replanting 79 trees and 20 shrubs, selected in consultation with the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority and the Town of Newmarket,” Masrine Guthrie-Peart said. “The size of the trees are about six to eight-feet high and are native to the area. Ten different species of trees will be planted, including the sugar maple and basswood trees that bees love because the flowers of the basswood bloom midsummer.”
The new plantings come with a guarantee, Guthrie-Peart added, so if there’s especially harsh weather, any that don’t make it will be replaced.
Residents were notified through a notice of construction, the Region said, and additional signage will go up this week. As well, the Region has held several open houses on the project.
For her part, Ogrodnik said she and her neighbours are now “opened up to Davis Drive”.
“This is only the beginning, what’s going to happen next is a lot of noise pollution, and I think we’re going to go from very bad, which I thought the clear-cutting was a low, to maybe even worse, and that’s what bothers me,” she said.
“They’re not only taking trees out, they’re topping hills, and it’s the ultimate insult when you take a beautiful rolling hill and flatten it,” Ogrodnik said.
York Region has launched a dedicated website for the project here, which includes information about potential construction impacts and the mitigation plans in place to deal with truck traffic, specifically.
For more information, you can also call 1-800-667-4817 or email [email protected].
