Ontario's tallest tree still standing in Arnprior, Ont. following storm cleanup

Gilles Grove nature reserve in Arnprior, Ont. reopened to the public Thursday following a nearly month long clean up from the derecho in May.

It is a hidden local gem in the small town west of Ottawa, favoured by hikers, dog walkers, and cyclists.

And still standing in the middle of the forest is Ontario's tallest recorded tree. It is a white pine measuring 47 metres tall, equivalent to a 14 or 15-storey building.

"It's nicely secured as an intact woodland in the central part of the forest there, so it's protected from the wind," explains Robert McRae, program director for the Nature Conservancy of Canada in Eastern Ontario.

"The white pine as a species, given the opportunity, will grow very tall and very straight," McRae tells CTV News Ottawa. "We would estimate, based on looking at the rings of other trees with the same diameter, that it would be about 150 years old."

The tree is housed within one of eastern Ontario's few remaining old grown forests, meaning the woodland contains saplings, mature trees, dead-standing trees, and rotting trees on the forest floor.

The white pine tree in Gilles Grove nature reserve is taller than a 10-storey apartment.

It is an average looking tree - one an unsuspecting walker would stroll right by if they did not know about it.

McRae believes the white pine was able to grow to its record height due to the land previously being a private estate, sparing the trees within it from the lumber trade of the Ottawa Valley.

"It's wonderful having it here," says Tara Pocket, who has lived beside Gilles Grove for roughly 15 years. "It's not the fattest but it's the tallest."

"I would think that it would be more likely to be found in Algonquin Park or some place like that," says Peter Shum, who says he walks through Gilles Grove once a week. "Because after all, Algonquin Park, most people have heard about it but if you tell most people outside of Arnprior about this, probably not too many people know."