A Toronto park looks like a total wasteland this week as Metrolinx proceeds with the controversial clearcutting of over 1,200 trees.

Fallen trees litter the landscape of Eglinton Flats, a City park at Jane Street and Eglinton Avenue West in the Mount Dennis community, as the transit agency proceeds with the controversial plan just days after an injunction to stop the clearcutting was squashed.

Metrolinx had long planned to clear the trees as part of the forthcoming Eglinton Crosstown West Extension project, which will extend the still-unfinished LRT line by another 9.2 km, carrying it west into Etobicoke and Mississauga.

Eglinton Flats is a popular community gathering point, offering a range of sports facilities, including a rugby pitch, a football field, a half-dozen soccer fields, four field hockey pitches, and a set of winterized tennis courts. 

But the park is also home to a dense ring of tree cover dividing the public space from the busy roads to the east and south. Or, at least, it was until this month.

Following the failed injunction, Metrolinx hastily proceeded with its plan to chop down the trees occupying the site of its future Jane-Eglinton Station.

The current clearcutting is a blow to the residents and community groups that have fought hard to stop the move, most notably the Save Eglinton Flats Coalition, which has characterized the destruction as a form of "environmental racism" in an already marginalized pocket of the city.

As of late October, the clearcutting operation is in full swing, and the landscape is looking far more like a demolition site than the wooded area that area residents enjoyed for decades until the heavy equipment showed up.

Construction fencing now surrounds the park, obscuring the wholesale destruction occurring just out of view to pedestrians and motorists passing the busy Jane and Eglinton intersection.

Even public sidewalks surrounding Eglinton Flats have been closed off to pedestrians, which is not so simple to detour around at an intersection where roads stretch as wide as six lanes.

blogTO photographer Fareen Karim was struck by the state of the park when surveying the scene on Tuesday, saying, "It was a pretty sad sight to see all the trees being cut down."

"You just know that it's a spot that was probably dear to a lot of people — where they grew up — and to see it being torn down is really sad."

While the current scene is tough to look at, Metrolinx has pledged to re-plan more trees than the 1,200 that will be removed from the park as part of a broader plan to introduce more than 3,500 plantings across the Mount Dennis community.

Despite this promise to locals, the reality is that trees take decades to grow to the heights of those now being clearcut at Eglinton Flats.

The province has used the same argument to justify the similar clearcutting of Ontario Place's west island as part of the Ford government's controversial scheme to transform the former destination into a new attraction featuring a private megaspa.

That project has largely overshadowed the battle over trees at Eglinton Flats, and despite the immense but ultimately failed push from community groups to preserve the wooded areas, some locals passing the park may only now be learning of the level of destruction planned.

The Eglinton Crosstown West Extension will add another seven stops and stations to the embattled transit line.

Construction of the $4.7 billion extension began back in mid-2021 and is now well underway with an expected completion date in 2031