Help Us Save Our Tree Canopy
Things we’re proud of
Shannon and Laura are nature lovers who enjoy living in one of Toronto’s greenest neighbourhoods. We truly appreciate the magnificent trees that make Hoggs Hollow such a special place. Fighting for our tree canopy is worth the time, effort, and a few headaches. We smile when we are called “the crazy tree ladies” it makes us proud to know that our efforts have helped make a difference. We wanted to highlight some of our accomplishments, not because we are patting ourselves on the back but rather to remind us of what is possible off we work hard, push and motivate a community!
Newsletters
Our newsletters were begun to educate ourselves, and our neighbours about the many benefits trees provide and why protecting them is essential. The more we learned, the more we realized we had much more to learn, and we try to bring our neighbours along on our journey.
Our newsletter covers things like:
What’s happening in our neighbourhood concerning our tree canopy
Development concerns, which most often negatively impact trees and green areas
Updates on City or Provincial bylaws and legislation impacting our urban tree canopy
Advocacy – are there development concerns that neighbours can get involved with, such as Committee of Adjustment Hearings
General updates on what’s happening in Toronto and beyond as far as trees and urban green spaces
Our main goal with our newsletters is to encourage neighbourhood engagement. Check out our Archive of Past Newsletters
Connections made
One uplifting thing we have learned is that we are not alone. Many groups and individuals are working hard to ensure that Toronto’s reputation as “A City in a Park” is upheld. We have developed relationships that have broadened our knowledge and provide support:
- YMVA – Laura Lamarche is co-founder of HHTW as well as sitting on the Development Committee of the YMVA. We have worked in concert with the YMVA on many concerning development projects. The YMVA is a hard working, over tasked, under appreciated group of residents who have day job. They do a lot of heavy lifting on behalf of the neighbourhood because of their love of the Valley
- The Hoggs Hollow Community – We have an incredibly supportive neighbourhood who have “shown up” and made themselves heard!
- FoNTRA – Federation of North Toronto Residents Association We attend monthly meetings to familiarize ourselves with City and neighbourhood concerns. Much of what we learn has or will have a direct impact on Hoggs Hollow
- Other Neighbourhood Organizations – Exchange ideas and experiences and work together to achieve common goals
- Environmental Defense – Canadian advocacy organization, that works in conjunction with government, industry and individuals to defend our environment. They were an integral part of exposing the Greenbelt Scandal and they provided guidance when we worked to protect the sugar maple at 7 Knightswood
- People for Trees Toronto – An organization set up during the Toronto mayoral race of 2023. It’s goal was to make candidates and citizens aware of the importance of our urban tree canopy. People for Trees.
- Neighbourwoods http://neighbourwoods.org. We are meeting with Dr. Puric-Mladenovic at UofT one of the founders of Neighbourwoods on December 11/23. This is a community-based tree inventory, monitoring and stewardship planning program. This program was designed to help communities conduct an inventory of their urban forest and use that information to inform urban stewardship in their communities and neighbourhoods. We have a meeting with Dr. Puric-Mladenovic in mid-October.
- Tree Trust www.Treetrust.ca Hoggs Hollow Tree Watch is teaming up with Tree Trust- we believe we are more powerful in numbers and this organization is doing great work. Sometime in the near future we will work together to identify the oldest, healthiest and most beautiful trees in our neighbourhood….and we have some beauties! Tree Trust preserves our biggest and best urban trees. “We raise funds to hire arborists who keep the trees healthy and extend their lifespans through measures such as pruning, fertilizing and insect control”.
- Wilder Climate Project https://www.wilderclimatesolutions.com. Wilder works to mitigate climate risk by producing solutions centred on nature. Their goal is to improve biodiversity, build community and enhance residency They have a nursery where they grow native plant species, intending to green our communities. They have propagated the seeds from 7 Knightswood into saplings which we distributed throughout Hoggs Hollow in Fall 2023.
We hope to develop a relationship with members of Olivia Chows new executive team. Two new positions created by mayor Chow deal directly with environmental issues and the greening of Toronto.
Support/engagement from influential politicians and senior City Officials
Jaye Robinson – City Councillor Don Valley West
Jaye Robison an unbelievable ally. She has organized 2 neighbourhood meetings and gathered top officials from various departments to answer questions and put forth their views. She has worked tirelessly to pass motions in City council, availed herself of our many questions, provided us with knowledge, connections and experience that we simply could never have gathered on our own
Kim Statham – Head of Urban Forestry
We have learned so much from Kim, she is a remarkable woman, who is motivated, hands on and she really wants to make a difference in her job. One of our biggest motivators was something Kim told us “ the last remaining “big tress” are called Remnant Trees, they are actually remnants from the original boreal forest that once covered southern Ontario” . We have some of these remnant trees in our valley. We lost two recently at 7 Knightswood and 19 Plymbridge. HHTW’s worked hard to save these as well as protect the rest of our tree canopy….not just in Hoggs Hollow but throughout the GTA. Kim has been an incredible ally and advocate and generous with her time, knowledge and connections.
Gregg Lintern – Chris Planner and Executive Director
He has personally responded to our emails. He provides detail and context, although we find ourselves in disagreement with much of what he says, we appreciate his willingness to spend the time and energy explaining the City’s position.
Stephanie Bowman – MPP Don Valley West
We have made spoken on several occasions with members of her staff. This is a relationship we need to grow.
Rob Oliphant – MP Don Valley West
Another relationship that is in it’s early stages. Our hope is that the federal government will reassess and oversee and perhaps have the opportunity to overturn some the provinces more controversial changes to bills that impact the environment.
HHTW Projects in the Neighbourhood
- Stop the Chop – An initiative to try and stop the destruction of the tree at 7 Knightswood
– Lawn signs
– Letter writing campaign
– Phamplets
– Media blitz
- Our Big Trees – We photograph and catalogue many of the mature trees in our community(sadly many of our most spectacular trees have been destroyed over the last 3 years).
- Committee of Adjustment/Urban Forestry
– 7 Knightswood
– 9 Donwoods Drive
– 3 May Tree
– 3 Old Yonge Street
– 34 Green Valley
– 34 Plymbridge
– 19 Plymbridge Crescent
– 25 Old York Mills (Agricola Finnish Lutheran Church Development)
- Petitions
– Finnish Church Development
– Save Our Greenbelt
- Community Meetings We helped spearhead with the support of councillor Robinson two neighbourhood meetings to inform and discuss 7 Knightswood. Our concerns were the removal of a healthy 250 year old sugar maple and the development proposal for an iceberg house with 2 stories below ground which extended beyond the footprint of the structure above. This home was to be build in There was phenomenal neighbourhood turnout at each meeting including many senior City employees. These took place in July and September 2021. 7 Knightswood Road meeting July 19th
- Councillor Robinson included upcoming Committee of Adjustment Hearings in her newsletter. The late arrival of Committee of Adjustment Hearing notices is a common complaint heard within our community. Neighbours are not given sufficient time to prepare when variances are requested. We spoke with Councillor Robinson about this and she suggested notifying the community as, soon as her office was notified. Councillors may find out several weeks before immediate neighbours are notified. We asked if she would alert HHTW to upcoming CofA hearings and then we could let our community know. She improved upon this and now posts all Committee of Adjustment hearing in her Newsletters. We think this has made a great difference and allows homeowners more time to prepare.
- Motions – Iceberg Houses With the incredible support and leadership of Councillor Jaye Robinson and in response to 7 Knightswood, we helped push forth a motion in council to Assess the Impact of Iceberg Houses MM3633.
The media support shown in regards to 7 Knightswood was phenomenal. One thing we noticed when reporters covered 7 Knightswood was they all seemed to have a real wow moment when they came down to the Valley and saw just how beautiful our tree canopy is. They were appreciative that HHTW was making this effort and funnily many seem to have their own story about developers, Committee of Adjustment, trees being cut down…frankly everyone feels resentment that so little is being done to protect our natural heritage.