The Forbidden Fruit Tree?

As I wander the baffling streets of Toronto I notice trends. For example, almost everyone wears a black coat. Most people are hard wired to some sort of mechanical device (phone, iPod). Male specimens of one specific ethnic origin really like to spit (a lot!). Women in their twenties and thirties like to wear their hair tied up into what is known as a 'top knot'.

There's a lot to see in the town. Most of it is irrelevant in the construction of a resonant life, but it helps to fill the time between ukulele lessons.

I am an observer. I am observant.

Last week I happened to walk by something very strange, and strangely enough it wasn't a homeless person peeing on the sidewalk with their pants to their ankles (that was October). It also wasn't a pack of dogs wearing designer sweaters (that was last winter), but it was akin to it. I walked past a building that is part of the provincial legislative building complex, and every tree around one particular building was encased in some sort of protective cage. Weird. Just plain weird.

 Someone went to extraordinary lengths to protect the tree that you see in today's images. That someone was the Urban Forestry division of the City of Toronto. Undoubtedly their mandate is to keep the trees of Toronto healthy. Big job.

Overkill (def): an excess of what is required or suitable, as because of zeal or misjudgment.

Now, I'll confess that I have no idea what the gang at the Urban Forestry department is up to, but it sure looks like overkill to me. For one thing, it's an eyesore. It looks like a construction site where no construction is happening.

There are twelve sheets of plywood surrounding this one tree (today's first image), plus countless two-by-fours which hold everything together. When you consider the manpower that went into this tree condom, then you start to wonder two things (other than plain old 'why?'):

1) how much is this costing the city (us)?
2) what kind of friggin' tree(s) are we protecting?

I sure hope it's a money tree because someone's got to pay for this. Now, if this was an isolated shrub in a forest of naked trees then I wouldn't be so interested, but almost every tree on this property has some sort of expensive sheath around it. The trees on one side all have protective metal cages around them, the kind of cage that you might see in an Ultimate Fighting match. I'm wrestling with the justification for such measures.

Is the plan to cage some, or all, of the trees in the city? Obviously not, but what is the purpose of this exercise?

I couldn't find out the answer on the City Of Toronto's web site, but if you want to learn more about the Urban Forestry division and their endeavours to keep Toronto trees healthy, then you can follow this link:

 http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/contentonly?vgnextoid=470bdada600f0410VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD