Algonquins of Ontario and Taggart Group say that after the derecho, trees need to be cleaned up
The people who want to make Tewin a suburb of Ottawa say they have been clearing brush and trees downed by last year’s wind storm from a piece of land just outside the city limits, but aerial photos seem to show something different.
Drone cameras sent up by worried neighbors and then by CBC News show that about 70 hectares of land have been cut down in the past few weeks. The city says that no permit was given to cut down the trees.
Neighbors told CBC News that they could smell pine and hear a low hum at night, but they couldn’t see anything because there were trees in the way along Anderson, Piperville, and Ramsayville roads.
We’re talking about a huge number of trees. Monica Brewer, who lives nearby
Not until mid-February, when someone flew a drone over the area and posted photos on a community Facebook group, did people start to worry. At a Carlsbad Springs Community Association meeting, there was a lot of uproar.
Monica Brewer, whose family has lived in the area for about 50 years, said, “It was just terrible.” “We’re not talking about 10 trees. “We’re talking hundreds and hundreds of trees.”
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The Algonquins of Ontario (AOO) own the land north of Piperville Road. This land is part of a larger area in the rural southeast of the city where the AOO and other tribes live.Taggart Group is its partner. have proposed a large community that would be rooted in Algonquin valuesand make Ottawa the best city in the world at building walkable, sustainable communities.
City council ultimately votedTo change Ottawa’s urban boundary—the line between urban and rural areas that shows where development can happen—to includeSome of the lands owned by AOO and TaggartSo Tewin could start making things.
The piece of land where trees have been cut down is just outside the urban area, and the city’s mapping database calls it “unevaluated wetlands.” The land is also subject to the rules of the city.new tree protection bylaw.
Hundreds of logs piled u
This week, CBC News got its own drone footage that shows that a wide swath of rural land has been cleared between Ramsayville and Anderson Roads and north to a creek, which is now the edge of the city.
Hundreds of logs are stacked up and waiting for heavy equipment to move them onto trucks. There are dozens of neat groups of smaller trees.
Google’s satellite images show that the area used to be green and have some wet spots during the summer. The National Capital Commission’s tree canopy map also showed that the property was full of trees.
Under the province’s duty to consult, the AOO bought about 1,600 hectares of land from the Ontario government in January 2020, including this piece.
Chief Wendy Jocko of the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation said she wasn’t available for an interview, but she sent an email explaining that the debris from the derecho in 2022 had to be cleaned up.
“The area in question was farmed for a number of years, and since then, grass, bushes, and trees have grown there,” she wrote. “It’s important to note that this area is still outside of the city limits, is not a floodplain or wetland, and was severely damaged by the storm in May.”
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Jocko said that areas with less damage were left as much as possible the way they were.
“The contractor told us that it was not safe to do selective cutting in the worst-hit areas because of how bad the damage was,” Jocko wrote. Staff from the City of Ottawa were told about the clean-up.
When Ottawa Cedar and Lumber Inc. was called, they said they had nothing to say for this story.
Michelle Taggart of Taggart Group said in an emailed statement that the land used to be farmed and that “shrubs, grasses, and some young trees” have grown back since then.
“Our environmental consultant told us that the bylaws allow trees to be cut down to make room for farming in the rural area,” the document said.
Tree protection byla
On Feb. 24, CBC News asked the City of Ottawa for an interview to find out if a permit had been given to allow trees to be cut down and if city staff knew about the cutting before it happened.
“The matter is still being looked at by the city.” We can say for sure that a tree permit was not given for this spot. In an email on Tuesday, Don Herweyer, who is the interim general manager of planning, real estate, and economic development, said:
The City of Ottawa’s tree protection bylaw, which went into effect on January 1, 2021, says that “no person shall damage or destroy or allow the damage or destruction of a tree” over 10 centimeters in diameter on many private properties larger than one hectare unless the general manager has given a permit.
The bylaw has maps of many wooded areas on both sides of the new urban boundary where homes are likely to be built in the future, including the Tewin parcel.
There are seven situations in which a tree can be cut down without a permit. These include when the tree is “an immediate threat to public health and safety” or when “the injury or destruction is a normal farm practice carried out by a farming business as part of an agricultural operation.”
Herweyer says that city workers are now “looking into whether a permit was needed” in this case.
The South Nation Conservation Authority, whose watershed includes Tewin, can only control wetlands that have been officially designated as “provincially significant.” It can’t stop people from cutting down trees.
- Wetlands are in danger in Ontario, which wants to build homes quickly.
When the city council was debating whether or not to add Tewin as a whole new suburb in 2020 and 2021, city staff warned that they hadn’t properly looked at the soil or natural features there. The Council’s decision in 2021 depended on a long list of studies that were being done in the area.
No heads-up for neighbour
Residents are most upset that they were not told about the tree cutting, even though the AOO and Taggart had promised them regular updates and consultations.
The president of the Carlsbad Springs Community Association, Adrian Becea, said, “When there’s work to be done, the community needs to know ahead of time.” “It made a lot of trouble in the neighborhood.” “We don’t need this in the neighborhood, especially for as long as it will take to build something this big.”
Brewer was surprised that the cutting happened in an area where neighbors didn’t expect to see development for many years because that land is not yet part of the urban boundary.
She said that the neighbors knew the development would happen and were interested in the idea of a zero-carbon community. Taggart and AOO had said they would stick to a plan called “One Planet Living.”
“It was meant to be a very important project,” said Brewer. “Before the environmental impact assessments are done, all of the trees are cut down.” “No words can describe it.”
Jocko said that Tewin is a lot bigger than that piece of land.
“There are hundreds of acres of mature forests in the Tewin area that will be protected and improved.” “They will be a key part of the Tewin community’s commitment to sustainability and environmental preservation,” she wrote.
Taggart also said that, given the public’s interest, her company and the AOO would keep residents better informed in the future.
Other people told CBC that they think the suburb of Findlay Creek, which is to the west, will eventually grow into the area that will become Tewin. Last fall, Ontario’s municipal affairs and housing minister, Steve Clark, approved expanding Ottawa’s urban boundary in Findlay Creek. This would bring new homes within three kilometers of the Tewin land where the trees were cut down.