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Mike Allen from his days as a University of Toronto student. He graduated with a forestry degree in 1970 and later obtained a master\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n
There were few things Allen didn\u2019t know about trees, especially those on the Prairies. As the City of Winnipeg\u2019s urban forester from 1988 to 2001, he helped lead its response to Dutch elm disease to protect North America\u2019s largest urban elm forest.<\/p>\n
The author and mentor notably said \u201cno\u201d when Hollywood producers for the Brad Pitt-led film Legends of the Fall wanted to uproot dozens of healthy trees in the Exchange District to accommodate a movie shoot in 1993.<\/p>\n
Above all of his accomplishments and interests, Allen\u2019s family said he is remembered as a family man who was there for the people he loved and those who loved him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was my soul mate. My best friend. We were both each other\u2019s soul mates and No. 1 fans,\u201d said Susan Allen, his partner of 52 years.<\/p>\n
Allen, 79, died in Kelowna, B.C., on June 8, 2025, after a long battle with Parkinson\u2019s disease, his family said. He is survived by Susan, son James, daughter-in-law Sarah and grandson Felix.<\/p>\n
Michael (Mike) Stanley Allen was born in Harrow, England, on April 25, 1946. His family settled in Toronto after moving to Canada when he was eight.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Supplied<\/p>\n Mike and Susan Allen<\/p>\n Allen\u2019s passion for trees can likely be traced to childhood camping trips in forested areas such as Ontario\u2019s Algonquin Provincial Park, his wife said.<\/p>\n He initially enrolled in astronomy at the University of Toronto, but later graduated with a forestry degree in 1970 \u2014 the year after Allen and his future wife, then a sociology student, met at a dance.<\/p>\n The romance blossomed, you could say. The pair were pen pals while Allen spent two years volunteering in Nigeria, where he educated people about sustainable tree practices and supported reforestation efforts.<\/p>\n The couple married in 1973. Allen went on to obtain a master\u2019s degree from the U of T, leading to jobs in Kitchener, Ont., and Edmonton, before John Hreno, the City of Winnipeg\u2019s first urban forester, recruited him to the position in 1988.<\/p>\n Allen built an urban forestry program \u201cthat is known as one of the best in Canada for its successes in maintaining canopy cover in a city that was a natural prairie,\u201d former Tree Canada president Mike Rosen wrote in an in-memoriam piece on the U of T\u2019s website.<\/p>\n Allen helped to develop Winnipeg\u2019s Dutch elm disease management program, rallying Winnipeggers to protect their elms, and consoling them when diseased trees were removed from yards or boulevards.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Supplied<\/p>\n Mike Allen<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve had people crying over the phone,\u201d he told the Free Press in August 1989. \u201cThey say, \u2018Somebody put a red mark on my tree. I\u2019ve known that tree for 40 years.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a personal relationship they have with that tree, and when it\u2019s gone it\u2019s almost like a death in the family.\u201d<\/p>\n The losses affected Allen as well.<\/p>\n \u201cHe felt pretty much every tree that had to be cut and every tree that was diseased. He felt it in his soul,\u201d Susan Allen said.<\/p>\n Allen built ongoing relationships between the city and community groups, including the Coalition to Save the Elms, now known as Trees Winnipeg, during that period.<\/p>\n His family said he is fondly remembered for his quiet strength, kindness and willingness to help people.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Supplied<\/p>\n James, Susan and Mike Allen<\/p>\n Friend Richard Westwood was head of the province\u2019s forestry branch when he met Allen. The pair served together on Trees Winnipeg\u2019s board of directors.<\/p>\n Westwood said Allen was known Canada-wide for his knowledge and dedication to protecting trees and enhancing forests.<\/p>\n \u201cI always found him to be very thoughtful. He was always very interested in tackling problems, be it a single tree, a group of trees or policies the city should be looking into,\u201d said Westwood, a University of Winnipeg professor and director of its Centre for Forest Interdisciplinary Research.<\/p>\n \u201cHe really wanted to see Winnipeg as treed and as beautiful a place as he could make it.\u201d<\/p>\n Allen once paid out of pocket to have elm trees in a park near his home treated with a biological vaccine.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was a big promoter of trees and the use of trees in urban spaces, and providing some of the forest feel to urban landscapes that are often devoid of trees and birds,\u201d Westwood said. \u201cI would say I learned a great deal from him, just like everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Supplied<\/p>\n Dr. Tree licence plate<\/p>\n One of Allen\u2019s notable achievements, according to those who knew him, was his refusal to allow the Legends of the Fall production to remove trees in the Exchange District, which was being eyed as a stand-in for early 20th-century Montana.<\/p>\n \u201cMike said absolutely not. The producers said, \u2018We\u2019ll get you some whips after we\u2019re done and you can plant those,\u2019 and he said no,\u201d Susan Allen said.<\/p>\n After a great public outcry, city council held a 7 1\/2-hour emergency meeting before rejecting the movie makers by an 8-7 vote, the Free Press previously reported. The production used Vancouver\u2019s Gastown neighbourhood instead.<\/p>\n Allen was selected to spearhead a mass planting of maple trees in South Korea to honour Canadian Forces members who fought in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953. The seedlings were planted by South Korean veterans.<\/p>\n Allen started a consulting firm, Viburnum Tree Experts, after serving as the city\u2019s urban forester. He pulled up to house calls in a vehicle that had a \u201cDr. Tree\u201d custom licence plate.<\/p>\n Regarded as a natural communicator and a media expert, he wrote weekly columns for the Free Press and was a regular guest on radio shows.<\/p>\n
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