{"id":294368,"date":"2021-07-09T00:33:43","date_gmt":"2021-07-08T21:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/have-guelphs-delightful-fairy-doors-become-a-forest-plague\/"},"modified":"2021-07-09T00:33:43","modified_gmt":"2021-07-08T21:33:43","slug":"have-guelphs-delightful-fairy-doors-become-a-forest-plague","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/have-guelphs-delightful-fairy-doors-become-a-forest-plague\/","title":{"rendered":"#Have Guelph’s delightful \u2018fairy doors\u2019 become a forest plague?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Have Guelph’s delightful \u2018fairy doors\u2019 become a forest plague?<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n While many love the miniature doors affixed to trees, the city was receiving an increase in complaints about how the doors are ruining the landscape in parks and natural areas\n <\/div>\n
\n It was treated as a stealth operation. Adrian Ferrazzutti would put a small cordless drill in his backpack, along with a box of screws. Then he and his kids would hike around Guelph, Ont., looking to install \u201cfairy doors.\u201d When they reached the perfect tree\u2014one with arches at the roots\u2014he\u2019d pull out a miniature door they\u2019d made in their family woodshop and, when no one was watching, mount it over one of the cavities at the base of the tree to create a \u201cfairy house,\u201d running screws through the door\u2019s tiny hinges.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like changing a car\u2019s wheels in an IndyCar race,\u201d Ferrazzutti says. \u201cDo it as fast as possible, get back on your feet and keep walking. The whole thing of this is no one\u2019s supposed to know who\u2019s doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferrazzutti wasn\u2019t the first person in town to make fairy doors, which have sprung up in parks across cities big and small in Canada and abroad. But as a professional woodworker, he definitely upped the game<\/a> when he started five years ago. He even started making tiny fairy furniture to go behind the doors\u2014chairs, beds and staircases that lent the feel of a true home. \u201cYou\u2019re overhearing people walking down the trail and discovering them, and the giggles that would come out of the kids\u2019 mouths put a smile on your face,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was addictive.\u201d<\/p>\n

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While Ferrazzutti installed only a handful of doors each year, Guelph has seen a fairy housing boom along its walking trails and in parks, especially since the pandemic. Parents found that the prospect of discovering or installing the things spurred their kids to get outside. Teachers jumped in, creating a magical area for kindergarten students in Marksam Park\u2019s \u201cFriendly Folk Forest,\u201d where stunning fairy doors several feet tall are fitted perfectly to nooks in tree bases.<\/p>\n

Then, amid the heartwarming stories of magic coming to town, the city of Guelph implored locals to stop. While many residents delighted in the whimsy, the city was receiving an increase in complaints about how the doors were overtaking, even ruining, the landscape in parks and natural areas. \u201cWe needed to press pause,\u201d says Dave Beaton, Guelph\u2019s program manager for forestry and sustainable landscapes. \u201cTrees are under increasing stress with climate change and invasive species. We want to reduce the impact on our stressed trees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along the Eramosa River Trail, for example, fairy doors started app<\/a>earing in greater numbers a few years ago; more recently, new ones seemed to show up every week. Some are artsy and cute, while others appear old and faded\u2014a small piece of painted wood with a child\u2019s name written on it and screwed into a tree. Says Beaton: \u201cThe magic has worn off. It looks more like litter.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But when the city put out a gently worded social media<\/a> post in early May warning that the drilling can leave trees vulnerable to disease and pests, the message didn\u2019t work like magic. While many applauded the effort to protect nature, others pointed out the lost joy for young children\u2014especially during a year when parents craved ideas to get their kids outside and engaged. How much damage, they asked, can a couple of screws really do?<\/p>\n

Many suggested acidly that, if the city cared about keeping its trails pristine, it should kick resources into ridding them of dog poop. Beaton is unmoved. \u201cThe fairy doors are not our number one issue,\u201d he responds. \u201cWe can deal with other more substantial issues at the same time. But that was something we felt we needed to address.\u201d The city won\u2019t be removing any of the fairy doors, he adds, because doing so could leave gaping holes that might prove even worse for the trees\u2019 health. Instead, the city is appealing to people\u2019s better judgment: \u201cThe city is certainly not anti-fairy. We just want to protect the magic of nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guelph is not the first city to take a stance against the proliferation of the mythical creatures\u2019 homes. Last year in B.C., the Regional District of Central Okanagan removed all the popular fairy doors popping up in Kelowna\u2019s Rose Valley Regional Park, saying they contravened a bylaw against damaging natural features in parks. Years ago, the English town of Crewkerne opted to close down Wayford Woods temporarily in order to remove all the fairy doors that had overrun the area. Critics chided the town for \u201cevicting fairies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferrazzutti has long known fairy doors were not welcomed by everyone in Guelph. Some of his past installations didn\u2019t last a month before he\u2019d find their hinges twisted and tiny doors pulled apart. The first one he built with his daughter\u2014a tiny, red masterpiece with little sticks across the window\u2014lasted three years before getting ripped away.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a little knife in the heart when you see how violently they\u2019ve been taken off. You\u2019re thinking, what is wrong with people?\u201d Ferrazzutti reflects. \u201cBut that person must be saying, \u2018What\u2019s wrong with the people who put these fairy doors up?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n

This article appears in print in the August 2021 issue of<\/em> Maclean\u2019s magazine with the headline, \u201cNo fairy-tale ending.\u201d Subscribe to the monthly print magazine here<\/a>.<\/em>
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