After a 100-foot dying tree was chopped down in Burlington, the property owners were on the hunt for a mature tree to fill the void. Novak Property Maintenance owner Adam Novak was hired to do just that.

After roughly a year of searching, Novak stumbled upon a beautiful, perfectly sized sugar maple tree for his client. “The shape of the tree had to be just perfect and straight. You want to find a good healthy tree,” said Novak’s wife, Heidy.

But relocating the tree from its Flamborough home at Maple Leaf Tree Farm required three generations of Novaks, a handful of tradesmen and two huge cranes to get the job done.

Equipped with more than 1,500 feet of rope and 100 metres of burlap, Novak, his father, Stan, and sons Brock and Clark got down and dirty. In an effort to protect the tree during the relocation process, the Novaks decided to blanket the tree’s roots in a handmade net made of rope and burlap.

Measuring 13.6 feet in diameter, the burlap ball took the Novaks four days to complete. “It’s a real art to have the knowledge to do something like this,” Heidy said of the netting process.

As transplanting day neared, Novak coordinated with the tree farm owner, Joe Pronto, Matt Archer of Craneway and other tradesmen to help him lift the sugar maple from the ground onto a large flatbed truck, safely and effectively.

Following hours of preparation, the sugar maple was lifted and carefully placed onto the float.

“We didn’t end up planting it until the next day,” said Heidy, explaining that the tree weighed 48,000 lbs and a lot of time was spent figuring out how to displace the heavy load. But with two cranes and heaps of patience, the tree was placed onto the flatbed at about 4 p. m. Thursday.

The following day, the crew transported the tree to its Burlington location where it was planted into the soil, still outfitted with its burlap netting. The burlap ball, explained Novak, is biodegradable and will eventually rot.

“Everything went perfect. It’s straight; it’s beautiful; it’s great,” said Heidy of the end result. “This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”