Residents and officials in Halton Hills are speaking out following two acts of environmental vandalism that shocked the community and damaged efforts to preserve local green space.
In Georgetown’s Jubilee Park, a 25-year-old pine tree was intentionally girdled — its bark hacked through with an axe in a fatal ring around the trunk. Meanwhile, in Acton’s Wallace Park, all 150 young trees planted just days earlier by volunteers were found uprooted on Mother’s Day weekend.
“There is no excuse for this intentional destruction,” says Halton Hills Mayor Ann Lawlor, who discovered the damage while participating in a townwide clean-up. “One of the best features of our Town is our beautiful trees and I am profoundly disappointed about the deliberate vandalism of public property.”
The saplings in Wallace Park had been planted on May 8th by Trees for Halton Hills, a local non-profit working to enhance the urban canopy. When residents found them torn from the ground just days later, they rallied to help replant the trees. Volunteers from the organization spent Mother’s Day working to restore what they could, with Town staff returning the next day to water the young trees.
The Halton Regional Police Service has launched an investigation into the incidents.
“Vandalism of these, and any public space in our region, are crimes that we, as your police service, take seriously and will not tolerate,” says Deputy Chief Roger Wilkie. “We encourage anyone with information to come forward; together, we will make our towns and cities safer.”
Don Trant, a board member of Trees for Halton Hills, expressed his frustration.
“Disappointed and puzzled as to why someone would go to the trouble to do this. We were expanding the edge of the forest by planting native trees which means that they are less susceptible to pests and disease and would provide an environment for other wildlife.”
He emphasized the many benefits trees offer — from climate mitigation to enhancing local biodiversity — and noted the group’s goal of planting one tree for every Halton Hills resident.
Police ask anyone with information to contact the 1 District Criminal Investigations Bureau at 905-825-4777 ext. 2416. Tips can also be submitted anonymously through Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS) or www.crimestoppers.ca.
For more about the work of Trees for Halton Hills, click here.
If you have a news tip or story idea, you can now send us a heads up via email at:
- News1013@LocalRadio.ca (Milton)
- News1015@LocalRadio.ca (Orangeville)
- News92@LocalRadio.ca (South Simcoe)
If you’d like to get ahold of me personally, shoot me a message at Cameron.Wilkinson@LocalRadio.ca. We’re in the business of content creation, so no idea is a bad idea.
