Fate of historic Toronto tree hangs in the balance at city council

Toronto city councillor Giorgio Mammoliti says the city should not cut down a majestic tree in North York he calls "incredibly talkative."

Estimated by arborists to be between 250 and 350 years old, the future of the red oak tree which stands near Sheppard Avenue West and Weston Road in North York will be debated in council Wednesday afternoon.

"If you go out there, it actually talks to you," Coun. Mammoliti said Tuesday. "We cannot afford to cut off any limbs off that tree. I would rather take down the house. It's beautiful, it's so surreal, you need to go on the site to understand what I'm saying."

Edith George, a conservationist and historian, agreed with Mammoliti and said the property should be designated a national historic site. 

Over the last five years, she has travelled the province with a power-point presentation geared to adults and children explaining what a heritage tree is and why we should protect them.

"If they could talk, the stories that they could tell about who walked past them, the history they've seen of our country. They should be completely protected," she told CBC News.

She said the tree "has stories of the explorers that went past it.

"One of the original owner's family members was a Loyalist with the Mackenzie Rebellion of 1837," she said. "And one family that had their estate here... all four of them became members of the Order of Canada."

Mammoliti said he has a plan to save the tree.

"I've proposed the city establish a trust fund where people can actually donate money and at the end of the day we can buy the property and turn it into a parkette," he said, adding that the owner has told him and the mayor "that he wants to sell at a reasonable price."

Mammoliti told reporters that the forestry department estimates the tree could live for another hundred years.

"Planet earth is in peril and this tree is giving us hope for survival," George told CBC. "This tree has good stories."