Mainstreeter Staff
Hydro One (Hydro), the provincial electricity corporation, has met with strenuous opposition to its initial plan to remove approximately half of the existing trees under the transmission lines of Centennial Boulevard this coming fall. As a consequence, Hydro promised to come up with a new plan, but residents of the street have yet to see anything from the utility more than a month after Hydro made the commitment.
Hydro’s initial plan was to remove 18 trees this fall. In their place, next spring, Hydro planned to plant “approximately 30 new shrubs/bushes in the boulevard using species that don’t grow as high as the existing trees, making them more compatible with the overhead lines.” Further removals and replacements would be planned in future years based on tree growth.
Trees have been growing under the Centennial Boulevard lines for more than 50 years but now Hydro One wants to replace them with shrubs and smaller trees. Photo by Peter Croal
Upon receiving the initial plan, Councillor Shawn Menard pushed back and, together with Hydro staff, met with about 20 Centennial Boulevard and other Old Ottawa East residents on August 20th. Hydro explained that its plan was based on the need to ensure a safe distance is maintained between high-voltage power lines, trees and other vegetation.
Hydro staff emphasized that change is required to save costs, noting that all ratepayers would have to cover ongoing costs of regular maintenance of the trees. This argument did not sit well with residents, especially given that Hydro has been maintaining the trees for decades, the last time being in 2020. “This important work keeps the corridor safe for public use and gives our crews access to the power lines for routine and/or emergency repairs,” Hydro’s Josh Vandezande noted in his email to Menard.
Hydro was subsequently asked by The Mainstreeter what the costs have been in previous years. Hydro’s media relations person responded that the utility does not cost specific projects, nor could it estimate the cost.
In Hydro’s initial proposal, the existing crab apple trees and other types were to have been replaced by mock orange shrubs and dwarf lilac trees, the former with a maximum 12-foot height and the latter six feet. Again, residents were not enthused about this proposal and requested more substantial trees if, indeed, trees really need to be replaced.
The power cables over Centennial supply Hydro’s Ottawa substation at the corner of Main Street and Riverdale Avenue but, unlike most of Hydro’s transmission lines, these cables are very visible within an urban environment. The rest of the line runs through a lengthy utility corridor, most of it on Hydro lands, roadway allowances, or industrial areas. So elsewhere, elimination of trees by Hydro goes relatively unnoticed.
The exceptional nature of the Centennial portion of the transmission towers is very much valued by residents. Indeed, the existing medium sized trees almost camouflage the transmission lines and their towers. And, in the spring, the crab apples provide a unique flowering display that the street’s residents much enjoy.
Centennial Boulevard residents do not like Hydro One’s initial plan to remove many of the trees under the transmission lines.Photo by Peter Croal
Residents asked why Hydro couldn’t simply continue with its regular maintenance program. “[M]any of the trees have developed fast-growing ‘suckers’ at the top of the trees that quickly increase the risk of contact with the lines overhead,” Vandezande noted in his email to Menard. To this response, residents suggested that there be more frequent pruning but Hydro staff resisted this again citing the cost issue and noting that if too much of a tree is pruned, it will die.
Most of the trees were planted about 50 years ago and some were removed – and, to the chagrin of residents, not replaced – in previous years. As Jayson MacLean, former chair of Sustainable Living Ottawa East, noted: “It seems that they just don’t want to do proper, regular maintenance any more. Their forester said that the costs for that would be coming out of our pockets.”
“I would advocate for skilled ‘heroic intervention’ to rejuvenate whatever trees can be saved,” commented Ian McRae, Old Ottawa East’s “go-to” tree devotee. “I would elect to replace the ones that must be cut with small tree species like the amur maples that are there already and apparently have been there for many years. Restorative pruning may be tried on others. I would not advocate shrubs like the mock orange or dwarf lilacs that Hydro One proposes.”
Now, it is the turn of Centennial Boulevard residents to wait and see if Hydro One proposes something heroic.
