Trees from all corners of Ottawa damaged in ice storm

Nearly a week after Wednesday’s ice storm hit Ottawa, the cleanup continues. Trees across the city, eastern Ontario, and Quebec took a hit from ice and wind.

Eileen Johnson says the tree in front of her home in Blackburn Hamlet was damaged.

“There was a whole lot of branches came down, some of them are not totally down on the ground,” she says.

She planted the tree in the 1970s. It was covered in ice during last week’s storm.

“We could hear the ice coming off during the evening. It was going ‘pow pow pow’ on the roof,” she says.

A few branches even hit her neighbour's home.

Johnson called a professional to tackle the cleanup.

“The type of damage that I’m seeing is a lot of broken branches and hangers,” says Ian Lawford, a certified arborist with Urban Tree Works.

He says it’s been a busy week and many of the ice-storm related calls he’s getting are similar.

“For the ice storm, the structure of the tree was most important; trees that had really looming limbs, that were far reaching, those were suffering. Trees that had more vertical growth and good scaffolding and spacing, they didn’t break as much.”

Lawford says proper tree maintenance is important.

“They don’t look after themselves. Every urban tree needs support and maintenance,” he says. “Sometimes pruning is necessary, sometimes cabling—we literally go up in the tree and put steel cables or nylon cables.”

It’s been a tough year for Ottawa’s tree canopy between last May’s derecho and last week's ice storm.

Arborists and city crews have been busy dealing with cleanup. The city says it is receiving calls from all across Ottawa.

“Staff continue to assess the overall damage from last week’s significant weather event and are focused on storm cleanup operations across the city. This includes addressing thousands of calls for service and prioritizing the collection of fallen trees and debris, re-inspections, pruning and brush/wood cleanup,” said general manager of public works Alain Gonthier, in a statement.

“Wherever possible, the City is asking for residents to support its ongoing operations by using the leaf and yard waste program. Leaves and brush can be packaged using paper bags. Branches smaller than 4 feet in length and 10 centimetres in diameter can be tied together using string or twine, and into bundles up to 2 feet in width. Once packaged and bundled, leaf and yard waste may be placed by the curb to be picked up on the regular collection day or brought to the Trail Road Landfill facility. “

Gonthier says staff will be providing Council with weekly progress updates until cleaning operations from the storm have concluded.