Trees in the Aurora Heritage Conservation District. Few years ago when I made stopover at near St. John’s Sideroad and Leslie Street area I have noticed a line of marked trees with a numbered metal tag. I thought – some kind of protection numbering system for the trees. I was wrong, it only meant that these trees were counted. These trees belonged to the former Lundy family who lived on the North East corner. A year later when I came back, the trees were gone. This is how easy is to remove trees for development, and in this case they were removed for widening of the St. John’s sideroad.

So here is a thing. Any site that is going to go under major development or road widening, the town tree bylaw does not apply. Some builders will preserve few old trees and build a park around them. Otherwise, they are going to be all cut. Lastly, did you know that all trees in the Aurora Heritage Conservation District are considered Heritage Trees and cannot be removed without a permit.

Tree Preservation, NorthEast-Old-Aurora: ‘The expanded mandate of the Ontario Heritage Act which enables municipalities to consider the preservation of aspects of Cultural Heritage Value permits municipalities to regulate the cutting of trees on private and public property as part of the district plan. The introduction of an enhanced tree preservation program to support the objectives of the plan may be considered by the municipality.“