One evening on my way home after December’s ice storm, I saw that a gigantic silver maple - one I had driven past a hundred times - had come crashing down across Ossington Avenue. It once stood tall, shading the nursery school below, but the ice storm had weakened it and brought it to the ground.
I'm usually in Etobicoke salvaging trees three times a week so all that night I racked my brain about what to do. I was devastated to see that this beautiful tree had fallen. And worse, it was just going to be carted off to the dump and destroyed at the cost of the nursery school. I couldn’t let that happen., A few friends whose children had attended the nursery were also saddened by the loss - it was worth more to all of us than mere woodchips. The neighbourhood seemed to agree, the remains of this tree was worth saving.
So I called the nuns at the Carmelite Day Nursery in the morning and offered to salvage the tree at no cost to them. My plan was to make a commemorative bench for the playground. They loved the idea of preserving this three that had stood on the property for so long – hanging on to a piece of their history.
But there was a problem: the chainsaw that I had was not right for the job. The 102 centimeter tree trunk was too wide! I searched high and low for a larger saw before settling on an expensive specialized professional saw. Even though this was a pro bono job, I decided the steep price was worth it. I placed an order and it arrived the evening before milling was scheduled to begin.
The tree was so large that it took two full days to mill the entire tree. I stored the slabs locally at a friend’s wood shop and now, as the weather warms up and the wood has had a chance to dry, I’m in the process of building the bench for the nursery school. The wood is ready and I’m planning to assemble the bench on-site this week, as it will be too heavy to transport once it’s put together.
Soon a commemorative plaque will be made to attach to the bench and we will set it up where the tree had grown from a seedling to giant over the course of a century. As the sisters nurture the new tree that gets planted to replace it, the shade will return to the playground and the new bench, providing a spot to relax for teachers, kids and parents.
If you’d like to learn more about this project (and see the bench in person!), or about urban wood utilization in general, join our Urban Wood Utilization Tree Tour, on Thursday, July 24!
ANDREW BAUGHN is an artist who realized that he needed to be outdoors, instead of in. A cellist, photographer, rock climber and now arborist, he chose to bring a passionate and creative vision to his love of nature.