One of Toronto’s oldest Elm trees is on its last leg. Researcher copies are running to grow again

One of the largest old Elm trees in Toronto – possibly in all of southern Ontario – is on its last leg.

But as the city finalizes the plan to take down the Barton Street Landmark next week, a university in Toronto firm to ensure that it will live again.

Eric Davis, a forestry ecology at the University of Toronto, visited the tree earlier this week and collected its seeds to collect its seeds, which would be used to reopen a copy of the tree in the future as part of the city’s tree seed diversity program (TSDP). He and his students measured the height of the trunk 40 meters and its circumference at a distance of 5.5 meters.

“It’s sad,” he said about the fate of the tree. “Everyone who comes down, you want to do any kind of justice by improving our ability to maintain Toronto trees and forests.”

Residents of the seaton village neighborhood in the Christie and Broor Street region noticed that the old American Elm remained barren in this spring, while very small trees were growing.

The thirteen -year -old Athan Tantra, which passes through a tree on the way to school every day, said he and his father saw the spring that the tree looked ill.

“It’s heartbreaking,” he said this week. “This is a big deal in our community.”

It is not clear what the tree is killing

Kishore used his drone to look closely on the branches of the tree and his father later asked to report to the city that the tree was not doing well.

The city staff said that an inspector determined during the May 30 visit that the tree was dying and there was a threat to the public.

City spokesman Shane Gerard told CBC Toronto that in an email the city has tried to determine what the tree is killing, but the lab’s results have been inconclusive.

“The tree was seen with a thin crown and beaten the leaves in late summer in 2024,” reads their email. “The removal of the tree will prevent it from becoming a threat, as dead branches are more likely to break.”

Davis, which is recognized by the city as a seed collector for the seed diversity program, says that when the tree is brought down, it will be in hand on Tuesday.

“This is one of the best remaining alms in Toronto (and) probably a high quality gene stock for it,” he said. “Each one is not only ecological but also culturally important.”

Local artists Jod Roberts, who live within the vision of the tree, agreed that it matters a lot to the community.

Last year, he used the old pictures of the neighborhood from the city’s archives to reduce the age of the tree in more than 100 years.

He then explained the importance of the tree and fashion of an heritage plaque and connected it to a utility pole next to the tree.

CBC told Toronto, “When something disappears in this way, there is a deep sadness.” “This Dutch was saved from the development of Elm disease and its surrounding city. So of course – let’s take its children and see if we can make more royal alms.”

Researcher says

Once Davis has collected Elm seeds, they will go to TSDP, which will distribute them to one of the several participating nursery in the Greater Toronto region. Once they mature, in four to seven years, they will be planted in one of the 80-odd parks and pillars of the city-a one that has been identified as a good fit for a new Elm tree.

A team of U U of Davis and Tea students is spending the city’s largest and oldest country’s maping in summer. He says that those native trees have been excluded by the invasive species in Toronto too much, and they hope that their map will allow the city to assist in their regeneration.

Each tree that is mapped is measured and its seeds are collected, they said. Those seeds will then be passed on TSDP for Regrowth.

One of the summer students of Davis is Sam Sedgvik, studying a master’s degree in forest conservation in TKU.

He called Barton Street Elm the most effective that he has seen so far.

“With the presence of Dutch Elm Disease, we have lost every big elm in the city too much, so this fact is still here, in fact speaks for its flexibility,” he said. “We really want to preserve those genetics as we can.”

Sedwick helped to measure Ellm earlier this week. He said that the tree has more than five meters in the circumference, 40 meters high and its canopy covers five houses on the Barton Street.

“This is too much air conditioning,” he said.