New parkette to protect Toronto’s Great Red Oak

On February 4, 2018, heritage tree advocates Edith George and Peter Wynnyczuk delivered their popular lecture What makes a Heritage Tree? The Case of Toronto’s Red Oak to TFN members (see page 6 of our March 2018 newsletter). At the heart of this talk was an amazing 250-year-old heritage tree located on Coral Gable Dr. out by the Humber River.

The City has since agreed to purchase the residential property on Coral Gable Dr. with the intention of converting the land in to a parkette in order to protect this great red oak. By Council’s direction, however, completion of the sale is conditional upon the Toronto Office of Partnerships successfully soliciting 50 percent of the estimated property value from private donors – a sum of $430,000, due by December 12, 2020.

TFN Members are encouraged to contribute to the protection of this magnificent part of Toronto’s natural heritage by donating today:

Protect the Red Oak now

This amazing tree is celebrated for its perfect conformation to the red oak form, vibrant and lasting health, and majestic appearance. Preserving its invaluable genetic legacy and creating new public space for the local community is within our reach, requiring only a little help from Torontonians.

Toronto Field Naturalists wishes to acknowledge this Land through which we walk. For thousands of years, the Land has been shared by the Wendat, the Haudenosaunee, and the Anishinaabe. Toronto is situated on the Land within the Toronto Purchase, Treaty 13, the traditional and treaty Lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. This territory is also part of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum, a covenant agreement between Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Wendat peoples and allied nations to peaceably share the land and all its resources. Today, the Land is home to peoples of numerous nations. We are all grateful to have the opportunity to continue to care for and share the beauty of this Land.