FREE TREECITY

a registered charity

The Site &The ProposalLocation & ContextThe Benefits of TreesFree Trees: How & Why?Existing Programs & Use

Some of us at HydroOne are looking for new ways to use our hydro corridors. We think we can take in some money and provide some needed public service as well, especially in the cities.

Hydro Corridors and trou-bled neighbourhoods of the City of Toronto

Sports

The same old stuff...

Parking Trails Agriculture

We want to go beyond the tra-ditional uses that up until now, have been proposed by single users or small groups.

The Leaside corridor in Scar-borough intersects a variety of very different neighbourhoods in terms of culture and wealth. We can use the corridor to weave them together and improve their health and vitality

What if you used the space to grow trees? Trees are important for many reasons.

1 tree

How about a nursery? The trees there are temporary. And better yet, we could give them away for free!

FREE TREE CITY!

but trees get too tall... we still need to get access to our lines

Free trees?! Are you kidding?!

continuously running air conditioners

10

gallons of ab-sorbed storm

water

750

pounds of air-borne pollut-ants filtered

60

increased habitat and

wildlife value

percent in-crease of real estate value

5-20

17%

40%

existing tree canopy

tree canopy goal

how can this be acheived

if most of the city is private land?

The City of Toronto has a goal of increasing the tree canopy to 40% of the city. Right now its only at 17%. How can they acheive their goal when most of the city is on private land? Maybe we can work with them and provide ac-cess to this private land through a free tree program?

...also, trees can easily cost over $100. This is a luxury many families can’t af-ford. Free trees allow less wealthy neighbourhoods and individuals to plant trees in their yard. Look at these comparisons!

Jane & Finch

Forest Hill

+800 exotic s

Victorian England began a tradition of importing exotic plants for decorative purposes. This tradition was brought to Canada and has not ceased. Exotics often require higher inputs and maintenance than natives and may not provide equal benefit to wildlife. Free trees would provide incentive to shift the scales back towards native species.

species in Canada

Well sure, that sounds good, but how could we possibly afford to do it?

1. Section 37

2. CITY-WIDE carbon tAX

3 charitable donations

4. volunteer labour

“Section 37 authorizes a municipality with appropriate Offi-cial Plan provisions to pass zoning by-laws involving increas-es in the height or density otherwise permitted by the Zoning By-law, in return for the provision by the owner of community benefits.” - from City of Toronto

A city-wide carbon tax takes in funds from the worst polluters and puts them into growing more trees. This has twice the impact as a fiscal disincentive as well as a method of physi-cally reducing airborne pollution.

As a registered charity, the organization providing free trees accepts donations from citizens and corporations to help fund FREE TREE CITY

Operational costs can be reduced through the partial use of volunteer labour. In 2010, over 13 million Canadians did volunteer work. 25% of these, logged over 161 hours of vol-unteer work that year.

Trees will spread all across the city.

Industial ZoneRavine CorridorHydro CorridorExisting Parks

The Leaside Hydro Corridor is not just a long strip of grass with some transmission towers dotted along it. It is filled with existing programs that will help define and enhance FREE TREE CITY.

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The roughly 16 km long section shows not only the spaces that are filled, but all those that lay empty. How can a free nursery fit among these existing conditions?

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Programs ProposedTransportU-PickSpecial OrderEngineered TreesEducation / DemonstrationEcological TransitionElectric Trees+ propogation greenhouses

Tree SpadeThe tree spade uses hydraulics to dig out large trees up to 10 m tall. There are various sizes to

accomodate various sizes of tree.

LiftSimilar to that of a forklift. It can accommodate

attachments in the same way crating an incred-ibly multifunctional machine

ChainA simple chain and hook attachment for moving

crates and other like objects.

The overhead transport infrastructure is a sys-tem that attaches to the existing hydro towers. The system is controlled via simple commands fed to a computer. Three Basic attachments exist in order to move goods efficiently across such a long site

The cornerstone of FREE TREE CITY is the U-Pick nursery. Here is where the public is able to come and choose trees for their yard or balcony. Through a combination of air-pruning pots and pot-in-pot planting, people can easily pull any potted tree right out of the ground and take it home with them.

Plan @ 1:2000

U-Pick

Ecological Transition

irrigation

permanent pot

removable Air pruning pot

1. Street Tree CatalogueVarieties of trees that are available within the U-pick Zone are showcased as a sort of catalogue as street trees. These give people a better perception of what each type of tree will grow to look like.

2. Infomation KioskA self-serve information kiosk is available for people to look up detailed information on the trees that they’re interested in before they take one home.

3. Pot-in-Pot Plantingthe pot-in-pot system allows users to easily choose and retrieve trees without any special tools. It also uses less irrigation water and fewer maintenance requirements than traditional potted methods

4. Parking / LoadingPark your car along the street and search through the rows for the perfect tree, or trees. Simply pull the pot out of the ground and load it into your car.

5. Lookout / Watch TowerTowers in this section allow people to climb above the trees for an astonishingly long tree’d view. At night they act as watch towers to ensure law and order is retained in the new forest

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

I need some trees for a big project...not just any trees, big trees...trees that I can’t find at any nurseries around here. Some big Sycamores. I arrive and watch the crane spade digging up my order. These trees are large. I can’t believe the machinery being used to get them out of the ground. A few more years and Hydro probaby would be asking to have some of these cut down.

Plan @ 1:2000

Special Orders

1. Large Specimens & Rare speciesThe special order zone exists to provide specific needs not met by the U-pick area. Here people can either request a tree species or size in advance, or they can choose from a pre-selected stock of trees. Here, trees are allowed to grow to a height of 10m before they are reloved from the field.

2. Tree SpadeLarge tree spades track through the air along their hydro tower infrastructure. They are required to dig the large trees from the ground.

3. Storage BuildingThis zone is a more intensively worked area and requires more in the way of machinery and vehicles than other parts of the corridor. The storage building also hosts offices and break rooms.

1. 3.2.

Sycamore Pumpkin AshLarge Tooth Aspen BasswoodCherry Birch Rock Elm

Pig Nut Hickory

Rare Trees in Ontario

Black MapleShellbark Hickory Basswood Pawpaw

Our FREE TREE CITY has been incredibly successful in teaching people about and connecting them with nature. The importance of trees is great, but here, we are also research how we can grow trees to acheive an increased rate of performance in urban conditions. From hybridizing for pollution tolerance, to growing square trunks for lumber, to splicing genes to create bioluminescent organisms...trees can be even more.

Plan @ 1:2000

Engineered Trees

1. Engineered Tree fieldsPlots of land are laid out in different sizes to acco-modate experimental plantings. Square trunks, bioluminescent leaves, functional forms, species bread to combat disease...these are all potential areas of exploration.

2. Loading AreaA space near the research centre is required to load and unload new specimens and equipment. This is serviced by the overhead transport system.

3. Research LabsResearch labs are located on site in order to most efficiently test and monitor ideas in the field. The lab isdevoted to finding ways of increasing the functionality of trees and exploring new niches in which they can fit. The broad goal is to move towards a living architecture

1. 1. 1. 4.2.

The Educational/Demonstration area is located adjacent to existing schools and parks. It is an extension, and an addi-tion of park features to the existing sports field uses. Here lie most of the site’s existing uses, namely baseball diamonds, soccer fields, and cricket grounds. These are trasformed into community hubs with an infill of additional uses such as the orchard, greenhouse/gardening work-shops, and playful plant structures for children to play.

Plan @ 1:2000

Education / Demonstration

1. Learning HousesA series of small buildings are programmed for teaching school and community groups about the importance of native urban trees, the process of growing plants, and other fields related to FREE TREE CITY like ecology and bioengineering. Most are greenhouses for hands-on learning. Some are enclosed for presenting, lecturing, and potential community functions

2. Teaching / Community GardensThe space between the greenhouses is devoted to an extension of the interior program. These gardens allow the teaching and learning process to include larger plants and provides a platform to show differ-ent growing methods and conditions.

3. Community OrchardDifferent spaces within the education / demonstra-tion zone are defined not by walls or buildings, but by orchard plantings. These trees not only act as porous buffers to different activities, but also provide free accessto fresh fruits.

4. Existing Sports FieldsThroughout the corridor there are existing clusters of baseball diamonds, soccer fields, and cricket pitches. these are all retained and provide the loca-tional basis upon which the new educational pro-gram is attached.

5. Living Play StructuresPlants can be so much more. Trees and shrubs from the nursery programs, whether they be engineered or taken from the ecological zone or the special order zone, can be combined and shaped and morphed in different ways to grow structures for children and families to play.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

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The Ecological Transition zones are sites located nearest the existing ravine systems. They are planted in a typical grid of nursery stock and as trees are removed, they are slowly allowed to succeed to a natural ecosystem. The trees selected for this area must be low to medium height so as not to interfere with the overhead wires.

Plan @ 1:2000

Ecological transition

1. Species HeightIn this transition zone, we can only grow trees that reach a maximum height of 15m so as not to inter-fere with the overhead power lines.

2. Transition over timeThis zone is treated as a transition from traditional nursery use to natural ecology. A varied and advancing line of ‘abandoned’ trees remain in the soil to establish the new ecology

3. B+B Traditional NurseryAs the site waits to convert to a natural state, a tradi-tional balled and burlap nursery system is employed and supplements the other nursery uses throughout the corridor

nursery rows of trees & shrubs

some plants are leftto allow a naturalsystem to succeed

some plants are removed and wrappedin burlap to supply restoration projects inthe region

1. 2. 3.

Balled + Burlap nursery rowsTransition ZoneNaturalized AreaYear

12468

10

Gray Birch12m

Eastern Rebud12m

Sassafras15m

Alternate Leaf Dogwood8m

Red Cedar10m

Dotted Hawthorn12m

The electric trees are a statement. They are functional. They are liquid metal batteries that store electricity drawn from wind and solar projects and release it for use in the site greenhouses and disperse additional power to neigh-bouring homes. Their faint glow reminds us of their purpose ...but they are also beautiful, mesmerizing...we wander among them when we want to think...

Plan @ 1:2000

Electric Trees

1. Electric TreesAs energy sources shift to renewables, storage options will be required to meet demand when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. These electric trees are fields of low-cost, small sized batteries that store power for running the propoga-tion greenhouses and potentially some of the sur-rounding neighbourhood. When night falls, they glow and create a field of lit cones, resembling a field of future artificial trees

2. Extended SidewalksAt intervals, the sidewalks extend into the field of trees, forging random paths for people to stroll amongst the sculptures. In the glow, one is lost in their own thoughts.

1. 2.

Liquid Metal Battery Formation Liquid Metal Battery Tree

liquid magnesium

molten salt

liquid antimony

A patchwork of 7 different pro-gram types are placed across the site, all respective the ex-isting uses around them. Eco-logical transition spaces are located next to ravines, edu-cational/demonstration ar-eas are located near schools, propogation greenhouses are in industrial areas. It all fits in.

Industial ZoneRavine CorridorHydro CorridorExisting Parks

Electric TreesSpecial OrderU-pickEngineered TreesPropogationEducation/DemonstrationEcological TransitionN

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Specialty Order

U-Pick

Engineered Trees

Propogation

Electric Trees

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