Stratford Perth Tree Trust chooses its ‘Tree of the Year’

The Stratford Perth Tree Trust has officially selected its tree of the year for 2024 – a 90-year-old ginkgo at the Stratford Festival’s Arthur Meighen Gardens.

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The conservation organization, which works to extend the life of mature trees, thing to honor the striking gingko because of how much maintenance work it needed, co-founder Marianne Van Den Heuvel, said.

“If a tree doesn’t need any work, we don’t pick it because what we’re trying to do is. . . extend the life of trees,” Van Den Heuvel said.

“One of the problems with this tree is that it has a lot of branching, and some of the branches cross and they rub. And if they do that enough, the bark wears off, and then you have a chance of disease developing or breaking, and then insects can get in. So this is kind of preventative maintenance that we’re doing on the tree, and that is to ensure that it is. . . healthy for as long as it can.”

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Van Den Heuvel also noted it would take planting hundreds of saplings to replace the carbon that can be stored in the single mature gingko.

“Old trees deserve and need to be saved. Preservation is costly in the short term. . . but doing nothing would be even more costly. The price of climate change is not affordable,” she said.

Since its founding in September 2020, the Stratford Perth Tree Trust has repaired and cared for 12 trees while planting and providing follow-up care to 10 new trees. This has resulted in the storage of about 30 tons of carbon, organization officials said.

Work on the tree Monday was led by arborist Tim Lott of Tim’s Tree Care. The work will prevent structural damage while encouraging continued growth throughout the tree, said Joelle Bulbrook, head gardener at the Stratford Festival.

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“Ginkgo trees are special. They are known as living fossils because they are one of the oldest tree species to exist. In the right conditions, they can live upwards of 3,000 to 4,000 years, so that is quite a goal for us,” Bulbrook said.

“Trees are an integral part of our lives. They clean the air and cool down the planet, and they hold the earth in place.”

Stratford Coun. Jo-Dee Burbach, who spoke at the event, said the city has taken several recent steps to preserve trees, including requiring a permit for large tree removal from private property (with fees funding new tree plantings), a seven-year cyclical plan for pruning trees on public property, and planting several hundred trees a year by working with groups like the Scouts and Girl Guides.

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“We do all know the importance of the tree canopy. . . . W“e’re hopefully being part of the solution,” she said.

Although each individual has an infinitesimal impact on the amount of carbon in the environment, collective efforts can have a profound effect, Van Den Heuvel said.

“That’s why I plant trees and native plants on my property and on the properties of the projects where tree trust does its work. That is why we collectively try to green our homes. That is why we try to reduce our meat consumption in favor of plant-based foods, and that we all try to reduce our use of fossil fuels. And that is why we at tree trust work to preserve old trees,” she said.

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