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A picture and a thousand words

Barmak, Sarah
http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2007/05/27/a_picture_and_a_thousand_words.html

Publisher:  The Star
Date Written:  27/05/2007
Year Published:  2007  
Resource Type:  Article

The approximately 27-metre-tall Humewood elm is among perhaps only 30 big elms in Toronto that remain unscathed by Dutch elm disease, the deadly fungus that has almost wiped out North America's elm trees.Over the roughly seven decades since the disease arrived on the continent, the Humewood elm has, inexplicably, stayed standing.How it escaped the scourge, no one knows. Maybe that's why many in its heritage-conscious St. Clair and Bathurst neighbourhood see it as something of a miracle.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

"This one somehow survived," says city Councillor Joe Mihevc, who lives a few houses down from the tree on shady Humewood Dr. "Heritage pictures of Humewood had the street lined with a number of elms."

That majestic canopy of leaves is now gone. A smattering of medium-sized trees lines the street, but none as tall or broad as the elms.

For a neighbourhood with a history of local activism, the towering elm at 24 Humewood has become a metaphor for the preservation of green space. Mihevc says it symbolizes the community's spirit.

Years ago when city workers wanted to take down the tree, afraid it would fall after it was split by a storm, it was the residents of 24 Humewood - long-time activists Sarah Adler and her mother, Hilda - who fought to have it reinforced with those cables and bars instead.

Hilda Adler, who had lived at number 24 in 1949, had protested everything from nuclear proliferation to the Spadina Expressway, and had even run for alderman. Sarah, the youngest of her five children, took after her, successfully battling the building of a nearby McDonald's drive-through before her death from cancer in 2002. Hilda died seven weeks later.

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