Pour le francais, clique ici.

* Update (April 13): Environment and Climate Change Committee considered this issue at its March 21 meeting (watch our delegation here), as did City Council at its April 12 meeting. While City Council adopted staff direction to investigate the matter more deeply, as well as look for ways to strengthen the Tree Protection Bylaw, we're concerned that these measures won't be sufficient to prevent further clear-cutting. We're following this issue closely.

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* Update (March 14): We co-signed a letter to Bioregional expressing our concern for Tewin's apparent non-adherence to the principles of the One Planet Living framework that Tewin claims.

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* Update (March 9): We co-organized a rally in Carlsbad Springs on Sunday, March 12 to protest the clear-cutting of Tewin lands.

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* Update (March 7): Shockingly, the City appears to have granted the landowners an exemption to the Tree Protection Bylaw and lifted the stop-work order, permitting them to continue clear-cutting these forested lands. We're monitoring this issue closely and exploring possible responses. In the meantime, please contact your elected officials to express your dismay at this thoughtless destruction.

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Ottawa residents can speak up against the appalling clear-cutting of Tewin Lands by signing our form letter calling on Mayor Mark Sutcliffe to hold those responsible accountable for this senseless destruction.

On March 1, CBC reported that about 70 hectares of land just outside Ottawa’s urban boundary had been clear-cut. (See also this helpful thread from Kate Porter and this second article. The story was broken by CJRO on Feb 16.) The clear-cut is located near the Tewin development approved by Ottawa City Council in 2021 and is part of 1,600-hectare package purchased by the Algonquins of Ontario (AOO).

The loss of trees at this magnitude is devastating for Ottawa. 70 hectares is the size of about 5 Lansdowne Parks or 8 Parliament Hills. While a representative from Taggart Group described the vegetation as “shrubs, grasses and some immature trees,” it’s clear from the footage that there were “hundreds and hundreds” of sizable trees, as one resident interviewed by CBC described it. These trees were recently home to countless birds, animals, and insects, “from small salamanders to moose,” according to the Ontario Field Naturalists’ Club. These hundreds of trees were also filtering the air of pollution, sequestering carbon, absorbing moisture, and providing the many other incalculable benefits that trees offer.

Contractors clear-cut at least 70 hectares of land.

It’s because of these benefits that the City of Ottawa has a Tree Protection Bylaw. According to this bylaw, to cut down a tree with a trunk larger than 10 cm in diameter, you need a permit. In this case, the City confirmed that those clear-cutting the trees did not have a permit. To be sure, the Bylaw provides several cases in which no permit is necessary (sec. 82); but none of these seems to apply here. Instead, the landowners went ahead and clear-cut an enormous swathe of forest, apparently hoping for impunity. (To note: the Peoples Official Plan Coalition, of which we are a member, specifically requested that Budget 2023 contain additional resources to enforce the Bylaw.)

Local residents reported "hundreds and hundreds" of trees downed.

Fortunately, concerned citizens in the surrounding area sounded the alarm. According to the CBC report, the City’s acting general manager of planning advised City Council (after CBC broke the story) that staff were made aware of the clear-cutting on February 17, and that they issued a stop-work order on February 22. Currently, the City is “reviewing if a permit was required” for this clear-cutting.

We’re outraged. We have several questions:

• How could the landowners have been allowed to wantonly destroy these trees in the first place?
• How long would this clear-cutting have gone on, had not concerned citizens stepped in?
• Why did it take the City so long to issue a stop-work order?
• Will the landowners face any consequences for this destruction?
• What will the City do to prevent such clear-cutting in the future, whether on this site or on future sites?
• Will the City hold an investigation of this clear-cutting and make the results of the investigation public?
• Is the City serious about enforcing its Tree Protection Bylaw and its Site Alteration Bylaw?

We encourage you to speak out about this. We must let the City know that this destruction of our precious ecosystem is unacceptable. Here are a few ways you can do this:

• Sign our petition, which we will take to the Environment and Climate Change and Planning and Housing Committees
• Write Mayor Sutcliffe (and CC Shawn Menard and Jeff Leiper, chairs of the City’s Environment and Climate Change and Planning and Housing Committees) to express your outrage and call for action
  
• Send these officials our form letter to the right (or below, if you're on a mobile device)
  

Sign the petition

Thank you for speaking out against this gratuitous deforestation and helping to protect trees and our ecosystem in Ottawa! 

All photos on this site are used with kind permission of the Carlsbad Springs Community Engagement Facebook page. An earlier version of this page misattributed the breaking of this story; our sincere apologies to CJRO.