There may be warning signs - creaking or, in a high wind, swaying, but Peter Feniak was taken entirely by surprise.
One August morning two years ago started off like any other, but by midafternoon his home was cordoned off with yellow police tape, hydro wires crackled in the street and the huge white oak tree in his front garden was split in half, a massive hulk of it exposed and lying across the sidewalk.]
"I saw it pitch forward in slow motion," he says. "We had no idea anything was wrong beforehand. Apparently it was the weight of the rain on the leaves that caused the spilt."
Last month, in Moorevale Park, another enormous white oak that towered above the rooftops toppled into the street, taking out the primary hydro wires on Welland Avenue.
With 50,000 street trees on city property in Toronto, and thousands more in ravines, parks and private gardens, there is a potential menace when storms hit, however briefly. Trees are at risk. Property gets damaged and, in extreme cases, people are killed.
Richard Ubbens, director of forestry for the City of Toronto, notes that sudden severe weather will often precipitate incidents of falling limbs and trees. "Toronto is subject to tornadoes, twisters and high-speed wind events with a lot of torque," he says. "These can be short lived, but will damage trees that may appear perfectly healthy. Extreme weather is one of the main causes of tree damage."
Experiencing it can be frightening and wrenching. Brad Hilton recalls the Norway maple behind his family's home toppling last month as his five-year-old son Dylan looked on in eerie fascination.
"There was a snap and a crack and down she came," says Mr. Hilton, who along with his wife Meredyth owns landscape design and build firm Artistic Gardens. "Working outside with trees and plants all the time, something like this is horrific and almost personal. When you are taking out a dead tree and planting new ones, that doesn't seem so bad. But this destroyed our back yard and changed everything from the privacy aspects to the amount of sun exposure. We loved that tree."
Everyone who knows trees emphasizes the need for regular inspection and care.
A tree may look as strong as the Rock of Gibraltar, but it may be suffering from disease or have been damaged and susceptible to disease.
A rotted-out tree will be more vulnerable.
"We see cases of included bark in the V of a tree," says arborist Larry Van Dyke of Van Dyke's Tree Care of Stouffville, Ont.
"That is where two branches meet but don't grow together.
A tree might need deep root feeding or pruning. We do bore tests to see if a tree is decaying or how much good holding wood is there.
People will tell us that they have ants. The ants aren't the problem, but they indicate rotting wood - that's what they feed on. It is very important that people have their trees properly maintained."
If a tree is on your property, that tree is your responsibility.
That means the maintenance and also the after-effects and costs for any damage that occurs if the tree goes down.
If you're in doubt as to who owns a tree, check the survey of your home or call 416-338-tree.
"There is an inventory of city-owned trees and people can call to find out about a tree in question," Mr. Ubbens says. "It is always, always much cheaper to take care of the regular maintenance rather than waiting for disaster to occur. An arborist might charge a few hundred dollars for a service, but having a tree removed when it has fallen can run into thousands of dollars. It is vital to check the credentials of a tree care company and make sure you are dealing with qualified people - certified arborists."
That's because someone who is not properly trained can cause serious problems.
"An arborist will know how to prune," Mr. Ubbens says. "The wrong type of pruning will cut into the tissue that releases the chemical barrier that prevents decay from entering. The cut won't heal. People somehow think a straight cut instead of one on an angle looks better. Also they damage trees with tools like lawn mowers and string trimmers.
If someone hits or whips a tree repeatedly the tree can suffer damage. It isn't necessary to cut every blade of grass - some tufts around a tree look fine. There needs to be a paradigm shift in the way people think."
When a tree on city property is damaged, the city will check neighbouring trees for decay and hazardous situations, too.
This year, with the advent of $2-million in additional funding, the city's forestry team is gearing up a program of regular inspection and maintenance for its entire inventory of street trees. "We want to have every tree inspected every few years," Mr. Ubbens says. "When people see something of concern on city property, they call us and we respond on a priority basis. We get close to 10,000 calls a year, but it's different every year. In 2006, the weather was cool and there was a lot of rain, followed by 2007, which was hot. That year, we had thousands upon thousands of calls.
Then, in 2008, we had fewer than 2,000 tree-related calls, and since there was a lot of rain it was good for planting. The number of calls this year will depend a lot on weather conditions. However, we hope that in 10 years we will have all our inventory on a regular schedule of maintenance."
Whatever happens, Mr. Ubbens stresses, the value of the urban forest is immeasurable, and all steps will be taken to protect and expand it. "Without our trees we would have a landscape of wind and dust and so forth that we can't really imagine," he says. "No one wants to see that."
Mr. Feniak and his wife, Jennifer Chapman, tried to save their tree, having it cabled together. But the anxiety of such a precarious situation was too great and, this year, the tree was removed and will be replaced by a red oak, in accordance with city regulations that mandate the replacement of trees.
At the Hilton home, the decision on the type of replacement tree is pending.
"You can have a tree planted that is 20 feet tall but you have to have the room to have huge trucks with specialized equipment come and we don't," Mr. Hilton says. "We are glad no one was hurt, but it's still frightening to think what could have happened if anyone had been outside at the time."
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