Residents of a west London street say they're shocked and surprised at how many trees have come down as part of a $15-million project to restore Mud Creek.

City crews began work to rehabilitate the creek in the spring. The creek flows from Oxford Street near Cherryhill Mall south to the Thames River near Wonderland Road.

The project aims to improve the flow rate of Mud Creek by deepening it and drilling two new tunnels where it passes under the CN rail line. City engineers have said the slow-flowing creek suffers from poor water quality and that opening up the space and replacing the trees with native species will fix perennial flooding problems upstream on Oxford Street and improve the ravine's overall ecological health.

The project has been five years in the making, with public meetings and information on the city's website laying out the plan, which involves extensive drilling and excavation along with two new access roads to bring in equipment.

Bob McKeon lives on Braemar Crescent near Wonderland Road and Riverside Drive. He chose the house because, like most backyards on the north side of the street, it overlooks the ravine Mud Creek flows through. The area was heavily treed before the work and McKeon says the scope of the tree loss was never made clear.

"We were told that the odd tree may have to be taken down," he said. "Apparently, they got all the even ones too. They took out every tree. It's clear cut."

Also irking McKeon and many of his neighbours is a large staging area, about 100 square metres in size, set up as a space to park all the drilling and digging equipment. The staging area sits on a large bed of gravel poured deep enough to raise it off the valley floor by about two metres.

"They did an environmental study to see what lives there and then they bring in tonnes and tonnes of stone and kill it all," said McKeon. "It will be 15 years before it grows enough that you'll get a decent size tree down there. We used to have a green space, now were have an empty space."

Catherine Blake is McKeon's neighbour and her backyard also looks out over the ravine. She was concerned enough by how the work was unfolding that she wrote a letter to the city's civic works committee to complain.

Blake says communications from the city and information presented at meetings didn't accurately state the size and location of the staging area or the scope of the tree loss.

A map showed a staging area, but in a different location. When she complained, Blake says she was told it was just a general schematic map, and that detail beyond that isn't disclosed to the public.

"I didn't think that's fair," Blake told CBC News. "Given that this is our backyard and we went to all the meetings."

City stormwater engineer Shawna Chambers agrees the work has temporarily removed much of the beauty of the ravine. In a letter sent to Blake in response to her concerns, Chambers pointed out that the work to tunnel under the CN line is extensive. The old culvert is being replaced with two new large tunnels two meters in diameter and about 90 metres long. The new tunnels are also being set lower than the original one to improve drainage.

She said the culvert they are replacing is simply too small to properly drain the water during a heavy flooding event. Chambers uses the analogy of a bathtub full of water with only a tiny hole to drain it. On average, a flood every two years covers Oxford Street and floods surrounding properties.

Chambers also wrote that some aspects of the project had to change from the original plan.

For example, the trees were removed in March because originally both the tunnelling work and creek restoration was to happen this year. Now only the tunnelling work will happen in 2020, with the creek restoration now set to begin next year. Final landscaping of the area around the creek now likely won't start until 2022.

As for the staging area, Chambers's letter said just before the work began, a city consultant realized a dry secure space would be needed to store pipes and other equipment. The public wasn't notified, Chambers's letter says, because the area was already disturbed.

Chambers said once the work is done, the creek and surrounding ecosystem will be restored and will grow back healthier. Also, she said the trees removed will be replaced at a ratio of three to one.

Coun. Steve Lehman, whose Ward 8 includes Mud Creek, responded to Blake's letter at last week's civic works committee meeting. He said the communication hasn't been perfect but said that's partly because they couldn't hold public meetings due to COVID-19.

Lehman and two city engineers on the project met with a group of about six residents on Oct. 16 in an outdoor space. He said residents were able to get answers to their questions about the project.

"I think what we learned in this process is that we have to watch with our communication and letters, they tend to be technical in nature," said Lehman.

Lehman more informal outdoor meetings will be held in the spring with residents to let people know what's happening.

"It's going to be a terrific nature preserve along there," said Lehman.