AN INCONVENIENT TREE?

On Jul 11, 2024 Victoria’s mayor and a majority of council members approved the updated concept design for Centennial Square and directed staff to proceed with implementation as outlined in the Centennial Square Revitalization Project Concept Design Report.  

(https://pub-victoria.escribemeetings.com/Players/ISIStandAlonePlayer.aspx?Id=386fd51a-15e8-4c75-afd9-a31191954313, minute 3.50)

That is a death sentence for the mighty sequoia, healthy sweetgum, and for the beautiful Shirofugen Japanese flowering cherry, which was gifted to Victoria by Morioka, Japan, to celebrate the cities’ twinning in May 1985.

(https://pub-victoria.escribemeetings.com/FileStream.ashx?DocumentId=98060, page 13).

The City and some elected officials have mentioned a number of reasons for this decision.  We find none of these reasons to be insurmountable. And not all the reasons given are supported by publicly available information - information such as the “detailed technical assessment of each” living tree.  (Ibid., page 15)

As the City has declared, we are in a Climate Emergency.  The sequoia is living proof of the resiliency we will all need from now on.  It is incontrovertible that we depend on trees for our survival, that we need more trees downtown, and that they help mitigate and adapt to climate change.  In downtown and Harris Green neighbourhoods, the space available to plant anything declined by 15% and 21% respectively between 2013-2019.  (City of Victoria, Vegetation Canopy Change Detection Analysis, 2013-2019, Phase 02 Project)  In the past two years Harris Green is losing or has lost to development numerous mature trees on Yates, Cook, and Meares, to name a few.

In regards to the inconvenient sequoia: 

 “That a previous generation planted that tree in that place is a gift to us all. The trees that are most appreciated by the community are almost never the ones that were perfectly placed, perfectly formed, or perfectly considerate of all other infrastructure and social uses around them. Those trees that capture the public's appreciation are almost always norm-benders…  You cannot recreate or engineer the social and ecological and historic textures of a tree that captures the public imagination like this one.” (Ryan Senechal, Sessional Lecturer at UBC’s Faculty of Forestry; practicing consulting arborist/urban forester)

We demand that the City of Victoria explore every alternative to cutting these trees down.  From the information publicly available, this has not been done.

Respectfully,
The Signed

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Notes: There was a previous petition titled: Save the Sequoia Tree at Centennial Square, Victoria by the Lorax, which was closed without explanation. 

This petition remains open.

Donations made to Change.org benefit that organization, not this project or petition.  Consider spreading the petition by sharing it, rather than by donation.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Resources:

"Removing that sequoia would violate City of Victoria policies"
by Ryan Senechal

https://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/comment-removing-that-sequoia-would-violate-city-of-victoria-policies-9443713

An Analysis of Dialog’s Technical Memorandum on the Centennial Square Sequoia Tree - Creatively United Community


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For more information, please contact: treesmatternetwork@gmail.com

The following are the emails of the City of Victoria Mayor and Council:

malto@victoria.ca                  Marianne Alto
jcaradonna@victoria.ca          Jeremy Caradonna
mdell@victoria.ca                   Matt Dell
ccoleman@victoria.ca            Chris Colman
mgardiner@victoria.ca           Marg Gardiner
shammond@victoria.ca          Stephen Hammond
kloughton@victoria.ca           Krista Loughton
dthompson@victoria.ca         David Thompson
skim@victoria.ca                    Susan Kim

Members of Council | City of Victoria