In an emotional lament to council and staff on Monday, Oliver Mayor Ron Hovanes mourned the recent removal of three stately trees from the boulevard of the Oliver Place Mall.

Upon noticing the recent disappearance of the trees, Hovanes instructed staff to prepare for a discussion at Monday’s Committee of the Whole meeting about the town’s tree management policy. Operations director Shawn Goodsell told council that mall management approached the town asking if it would remove the trees. They were concerned about the trees growing into the adjacent power lines and blocking signage at the mall.

Told that the town doesn’t offer that service, the mall went ahead and had the trees taken down. “I was surprised they took them down so fast,” he said. Goodsell said the mall had been responsible for the costs of maintaining the trees.
Hovanes told council that when he saw that the trees had been removed, “I had never been so upset.”
The mayor conceded that the mall was within its legal rights to remove the trees, so long as it followed the Town regulations and plant two other trees, one on the same site and one somewhere else. Hovanes said he is concerned about the long-term outlook for trees in Oliver. “They say the best time to plant a shade tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now,” he said. Goodsell responded that the current tree policy left his department powerless to prevent the removal of the mall trees.

“Unless there are some teeth I can use (some regulation) that we can enforce,” there is nothing the town can do in such a situation, he said. There is much that is being done, however, regarding the 2011 Oliver Tree Inventory and Management Plan, said town horticulturalist Mark Jamieson.

About half of the town’s inventory of more than 800 trees have been pruned to international standards. Twenty-seven trees have been removed because of poor structure or health. A pest management program has been partially completed along with soils analysis. Council took no action on the trees issue.