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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - As winter's snow begins to recede, Michel Thibodeau's concerns will be clearly visible to all.

Thibodeau lives on Stinson Road – the street that runs parallel to Old Airport Road from the fire hall in Northland Trailer Park – and has watched for years as street snow removal pushes piles of hard, compacted snow into trees that line the road.

Michel Thibodeau points at a tree that was bent during snow-clearing at Northland Trailer Park last month. He said drivers removing snow need to be more considerate of the trees when piling up the white stuff. "It's careless," he said. "It's like they don't care." - Herb Mathisen/NNSL photo

More than 50 birch trees stand along Old Airport Road beside the sidewalk along the stretch, staggered at about eight feet from each other.

Thibodeau said every year, trees are crushed as piles of snow, with chunks sometimes one to two feet thick, are pushed into them.

He said the latest removal was about four weeks ago.

On a brief tour of the area, Thibodeau pointed out at least three trees that were bent back by piles of snow.

"The blocks of ice from the street, they push it right up," he said.

"There is one that is completely buried. It's bent. Sometimes they completely rip it off and it's dead."

At some intervals where there should be a tree, there isn't one to be seen and Thibodeau said that's because it has either been covered completely by the mass of snow or it was destroyed during a previous ploughing effort.

"It's just careless," he said. "It's like they don't care."

He said when he moved into his trailer, he had a giant birch tree across the street.

"It's dead now," he said, adding there is but a bush in its place.

Thibodeau, who moved to Yellowknife eight years ago, said this problem has been bothering him for about four years.

"The guy who is driving the truck should consider the trees," he said.

Dennis Kefalas, director of public works with the city, said all street snow removal in the trailer park is the responsibility of the Yellowknife Condominium Corporation No. 8.

Mike Roy, manager of the corporation, said this was the first time he had heard of the problem.

"Nobody has called me. Nobody has even mentioned anything," he said.

He said Robinson Enterprises Ltd provided the snow removal service last year, and over the past few years.

Roy said he doesn't tell the contractors what to do, but assumed they wouldn't bother the trees.

This isn't the first time a Yellowknifer has had a beef with trees going down in the area.

Last April, Northland Trailer Park resident Rodney Kenny was angry that Northland Utilities cut down a line of trees that acted as a buffer between his home and Franklin Avenue.

"A tree is a tree and it should not be cut down. It takes so long to grow up here in the North," said Thibodeau.