NDG resident stumped by city’s plans to plant tree in her yard

An NDG resident is upset that the City of Montreal wants to plant a tree in her yard, despite it's ample greenery.

Montreal is planting trees around the city on public land, including on some front lawns, and one NDG resident says she has enough greenery and doesn’t want another tree.

She’s being told, however, that she has no choice.

Standing in the corner of her property, between hedges and a magnolia tree, Nancie Wight said, “Planting a tree here - how does that make sense?”

She said a city arborist told her a tree would be planted.

The corner spot is the compromise because at first, the plan was to plant in the middle of the lawn.

“We explained to her that if you put a tree here that blocks the light,” said Wight.

She said her pollinator garden would wither in the shade of a tree, and her flowering bushes and garden add up to a lot of greenery on her property.

“That there’s not really a lot of place here for a tree,” she said.

Wight loves trees, but says they need to be planted where there’s room for them to grow.

White sidewalk marks along Terrebonne Street indicate where trees will be planted.

The city did compromise on the size of it.

“What’s the smallest we can have? And she said, ‘a crab apple tree,’” said Wight.

She emailed her city councillor, Peter McQueen, and borough mayor, Gracia Kasoki Katahwa, asking for an exemption to the tree planting plan.

In an email to CTV News, the city said tree planting is part of its climate plan to add half a million trees by 2030, and Wight’s tree will be planted here before the end of this year.

“After running into the mayor on the sidewalk, we sent her a little follow up but haven’t heard back, so I don’t know if maybe she’s passed along anything to the tree department, but we’re really kind of at a loss,” said Wight.