[wild goose chase]

Where in Toronto have you noticed a particularly large/old tree? The trees in Queen's Park seem pretty big, and I have also noticed there are often large willows in public parks.

A lot of street trees are small or young because they seem replaced often, not lasting past many decades.

I wonder if there are many one to two century-old or even older trees in Toronto.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Toronto is planting dwarf trees on city owned property on your street. At maturity, these dwarf trees would be about half the size of the regular trees. They do it to have less leaves to clean up and less chance for root damage.

 

[Armour]

http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/biological-monument-centuries-old-toronto-oak-could-be-at-risk-1.2359589

Does anyone know where this tree in The Annex is?: http://t.thestar.com/#/article/news/insight/2009/11/08/torontos_oldest_tree.html

I assume most of the oldest trees in the city are in our ravines (especially the old growth forests). There is a massive oak tree in the edge of a ravine by my house. It could easily be a couple hundred years old. It's at least one and a half times the size of a any other tree in the area.

 

[gabe]

We lost a lot of tall old trees during the 2013 ice storm.

 

[Johnny Au]

Oakville nearby has one very large and old oak tree located on Bronte Road just north of the QEW. It is so large that when Bronte Road was widened, the area around the tree was made into a median.

 

[Armour]

Oakville nearby has one very large and old oak tree located on Bronte Road just north of the QEW. It is so large that when Bronte Road was widened, the area around the tree was made into a median.

Here it is:

https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Ol...N!3m1!1s0x882b6750da6192f1:0x521bac953e864500

Does anyone know of a way to have a tree examined to determine its age? The oak tree by my house appears thicker and much taller than the tree mentioned above.

 

[wopchop]

Oakville nearby has one very large and old oak tree located on Bronte Road just north of the QEW. It is so large that when Bronte Road was widened, the area around the tree was made into a median.

Yeah, the tree was originally going to be cut down, but there was backlash against it. The region said it would cost like $350k extra to preserve it in a median. So there was a big donation campaign, including support from the Prince of Wales, and then someone anonymously donated something like $150k to help make up the difference.

I believe it was estimated at 250 years old.

 

[Johnny Au]

Yeah, the tree was originally going to be cut down, but there was backlash against it. The region said it would cost like $350k extra to preserve it in a median. So there was a big donation campaign, including support from the Prince of Wales, and then someone anonymously donated something like $150k to help make up the difference.

I believe it was estimated at 250 years old.

That tree was old enough to remember when passenger pigeons perched on it.

 

[wild goose chase]

Does anyone know of a way to have a tree examined to determine its age? The oak tree by my house appears thicker and much taller than the tree mentioned above.

I think, besides cutting it down to count rings which obviously would be out of the question if you still wanted the tree, there's also coring (taking a core sample of wood from it that contains rings) but that seems to be done more for scientific research for things like forestry studies and still risks damaging the living tree, leaving it vulnerable before it heals.

But otherwise, I think there are people who make guesses based on the species, growth rate and girth, though growth rate can depend on local conditions like climate, soil, health etc. I'm guessing an arborist or someone who works with trees could possibly make such an estimate. Anyone else know?