It may be earth week, but it's not cause for celebration at two Woodstock trails that have been decimated by the Ash Borer beetle. The city this fall was forced to hire a company to cut down 96% of the trees on the Lions' Trail alone, because of fear of the forest collapsing on itself. Now that the cutting is finished, the area looks like a waste land, and remains closed due to flooding. (Photo on right courtesy of Woodstock News Group) City Parks Supervisor Chris Kern says they have taken wildlife into account. "We noticed that there was some wildlife that wouldn't have a home. We noticed some rabbits and birds and we didn't want them to be without, so we put some piles of brush out for them to use as a refuge. There are some wood chip piles that you can see from Dundas. We'll be using those chips to put around some tree seedlings for the replant." Kern says the city has purchased 1300 trees, 6-8-feet in height to begin that re-forestation of the trails. An estimated 2300 trees were cut down on the Lions' Trail alone. (Bottom photo taken of tree-line in December) The trees that were cut down were sold by Hart Excavating as firewood. The city received permission for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to allow the wood to be sold off. Across Dundas on the Youth Start trail, there wasn't as high a concentration of Ash trees, and the trail is in good enough shape to re-open. The signs were taken down on Tuesday. Kern says, "We've actually opened the Youth Start Trail. On the Lions' Trail, we've had quite a few flooding situations so we have some more work to do in there, and we'll be meeting with the Upper Thames at the beginning of next month to go over plans to revitalize the area."
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