By ROY WOOD

Oliver council agreed to review its tree policy, but held out little hope for a resident frustrated by the amount of work caused by the seedlings in the spring and leaves in the fall from a majestic maple near OES.

Jennifer Morton told a council committee meeting on Tuesday that the maple tree adjacent to her property seasonally inundates her yard. She said that she and her husband are both “on disability” and cannot physically do the clean-up required nor afford to pay someone else to do it.

She added that the roots from the tree have “broken up a concrete wall along our front property line.”

In an earlier letter from town corporate officer Diane Vaykovich, Morton was told that the tree in question does not meet the criteria in the town’s policy for removal.

The letter said the town horticulturalist has examined the tree and found it to be slightly stressed and having a couple of dead branches but otherwise healthy. As well, Vaykovich said, damage to the concrete wall was apparently not caused by the tree’s roots.

Morton told council she would be happy to replace the tree with some other species, but “maple trees are just too much work.”

Several members of council came to the defence of the maple in question and the policy that protects it and the rest of the town’s inventory of decorative trees.

“Owning a home and a yard comes with some work,” said Mayor Ron Hovanes, pointing out that the trees in the Bartlett Avenue neighborhood have been there for generations. “People buy there because they like the boulevard trees.”

In the end, council voted to direct staff to review and report back on the tree policy and to visit the Morton property and assess the pruning and roots of the offending maple.