Showing posts with label horse chestnut trees Cook Street. Show all posts
Showing posts with label horse chestnut trees Cook Street. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

More on Cook Street Chestnut Tree Demolition







Fairfield photographer Penny Tennenhouse records the "inglorious demise" of the beloved Cook Street horse chestnuts.

"They didn't even leave stumps in front of the bank and MOKA House -- just like they didn't exist. I was surprised at how fast it all was, and went back home and got my camera. By then it was after 4 p.m., starting to get dark -- sort of fitting."

Monday, January 18, 2010

Cook Street Chestnut Tree Demolition







Bottom: Futile budding in an attempt to get ready for spring. Does this wood look diseased?

Above: Sun sets for the last time on a magnificent, strong, living being. Buildings rising, trees falling.
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Goodbye to Five Dear Friends



Last chance to shelter here. Last time to fill the winter sky with branches, and to house the nests of birds. Five massive elder chestnut trees in the Cook Street village are to be killed today -- lifelong friends for many and the signature trees that give the village its character. Fall was the shiny chestnuts on Cook Street. And how glaring-hot will summer be on that busy street now, without the big trees' shade?

The City of Victoria has entered into a partnership for tree removal with BC Hydro, a company whose mandate is to make money, not to preserve the urban forest. So a "disease" was discovered and the trees were condemned, to make life easier for power line maintainers. They have bureaucratically christened this a "community re-greening partnership," but it is of course in fact a de-greening partnership, with no community support behind it.