Photos courtesy of Mariann Burka

Katie Bernardo just started a Change.org petition, asking the city to save the tree.
The city plans to remove the tree within the next week.
Already more than 500 have signed. Please consider signing it and sharing it with your friends:

https://www.change.org/p/city-of-victoria-save-the-tree-are-humboldt-and-government?recruiter=223687756&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_term=share_petition&fbclid=IwAR1z9apwSM0anEKoZuv9cic-D2SAgpJwyDCIYXcY1u6ezGka95RbMQr5JEs

Katie also started a Facebook page for the tree, called Harbour Guardian Tree. Everyone is welcome to share their comments and photos there. Some of you have written wonderful letters to the city. We hope you will share excerpts there for everyone to read.

Many thanks to Janet Simpson, who stepped up as CTMN’s spokesperson for this tree! She has given several effective media interviews to voice our reasons for asking the City to reconsider.

Mature tree to make way for bike lanes in the heart of Victoria’s Inner Harbour

Plans to cut downtown tree

http://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/all-points-west

Thanks also to everyone who used or shared our template letter to the city, and to those who wrote their own letters.
Although some feel this is just one tree, we feel it is worth saving if possible.
And if we can’t, we hope this outcry will encourage the City to think more carefully about plans to remove more public trees in the future…

By the way, the city’s response letter states the tree is a White Birch (not an aspen). We looked up the life-span of White Birch trees and it is short, particularly in the city (only 30 to 40 in the city, but 80 to 140 years in the wild). However, this tree is so well-loved that if it is spared, we think it will last longer!