Where have all the trees gone in south Barrie?

Residents in Barrie’s south-end are lamenting the loss of trees along Mapleview Drive and Lockhart Road as new development moves in.

And while it’s inevitable given the need for housing as the city grows, Mayor Jeff Lehman says he understands the angst, “If I had a house and it had a woodlot behind it, and the woodlot had always been there, and I’d lived there for 10 years, I’d be really upset, too.”

Lehman notes there is some method to the madness noting a third of the annexed lands will remain woodland as they are developed. In addition, there will be connections to each of the new neighbourhoods that go in to encourage people to walk along trails from one community to the next.

The city also takes steps to ensure a line of trees that may be behind a subdivision is left intact when a developer starts building on land adjacent to it.

Lehman says, ‘We try to get better at this every time we do it.”