Heritage Trees
The ‘Fab Four’ of heritage trees, which are dubbed Big Red, Applebee Catalpa, Stop26 and Titan.
These stately four have already been acclaimed with provincial heritage status and have become celebrities of sorts in the Toronto Star, City-TV , CBC and local Etobicoke media.
Cumulatively, the ‘Fab Four’ combine the growing and harsh climatic survival experience of well over 700 years.
Still puzzled? How about the fact that these four ecosystems work extremely hard every day producing fresh oxygen and filtering out dirty carbon dioxide from the air for at least 20 – 25 people!
And so it is with ecological pleasure that we introduce you to ‘BIG RED’, ‘Applebee Catalpa’, ‘STOP 26’ and the largest in South West Toronto; ‘TITAN’. All with Ontario Forestry Heritage Tree status.
Located at Park Boulevard and Long Branch Ave, Big Red was Long Branch’s first Heritage Tree. It escaped the great Long Branch Hotel fire of 1958 and has majestically served as a living beacon for the Legion’s 101 Long Branch Cenotaph ever since.
BIG RED a 200-year-old Red Oak, instantly received fame and affection with front page coverage, radio and TV media coverage during its heritage tree designation in the spring of 2018, becoming the first Heritage Tree in Long Branch.
The approximate 125 year old and 70- foot high Northern Catalpa, is located on lands that once belonged to Moses Applebee the first Ward 1 Councillor for the Township of Etobicoke. The Applebee family immigrated from Yorkshire, England in the early 1800s. For more information about the Applebee Catalpa please see the South Etobicoke New article. Northern Catalpas and their southern cousins have long been revered for their sweet aromatic fragrance and the bountiful trumpeting white with purple and yellow striped floral plumage.
Stop 26 on Ash Cr. was featured as the Star’s Tree of the Week column by Megan Ogilvie.
A beautiful Silver Maple, STOP 26, is the last of a grove of trees at the former location of Colonel Fredrick B. Robin’s gates to the Pine Beach residential community c. 1910 at Lakeshore Boulevard. Stop 26 was the Mimico-Port Credit Rail-tram stop number 26.
Standing 110 feet tall, Titan may be the largest red oak found in this end of Toronto. It is estimated to be between 250 and 275 years old.
Titan was featured in the inaugural issue of the Toronto Star Tree of the Week.
Find out more about the Heritage Tree Program from Forest Ontario.
Help Us Nominate More Long Branch Heritage Trees
We are looking for more Long Branch Heritage Tree candidates. Our neighbourhood has a rich history and many 100 plus year old trees that we would like protected under the Forests Ontario Heritage designation, not only for the residents who live here today but for the enjoyment of many generations to follow.
Email a photo, the location of the tree and what you know of it’s story to: longbranchnato@gmail.com
Long Branch’s BIG RED Heritage Tree
