A trunk and a few inches of branches are all that’s left of one of the trees at Okanagan Lake Shopping Centre in West Kelowna.
That’s it.
But it’s not just one tree. In fact, there’s not much left of about 50 of the trees lining the boulevards at the retail plaza.
Some shoppers were stunned by the heavy-handed recent pruning of the mall’s greenery.
“It looks horrible,” said one person.
The company that runs the shopping centre offered no comment when asked by Global News about the pruning.
“Well, they’ve cut it right down to nothing,” said another shopper.
“I was watching them do it,” he said. “When they did it, and I was like ‘Wow,’ cause clearly they had no clue.”
Most everyone that Global News talked to today at the mall thought the pruning was done by someone who was all thumbs — and none of them green.
“They were such pretty trees,” said Melba Reid of Okanagan Master Gardeners. “I don’t know why they needed pruning.”
Still, these are the Okanagan Lake Shopping Centre’s trees and it is the centre’s prerogative to do whatever it want with them. But as an avid gardener, Reid laments the loss of the tree’s natural beauty
“They were really a nice height,” said Melba. “Nice canopy, pretty leaves and they made the place look good. Now it’s barren.”
“These are huge cuts for one little tree to heal at once,” Reid added.
Global News contacted the property management group to try and find out why such drastic pruning was needed, but said no comment.
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