Shelley Wiens is still waiting to get back to her daily walks in Idlewood Park after storm damage closed off access to park trails.

The wind storm swept across Ontario in May, leaving a trail of destruction, and a months-long wait for crews to clean up the destruction left behind.

“It was just a really nice place to go, pretty scenery, and it’s shaded,” said Wiens.

More than 200 trees at Idlewood Natural Area were damaged during a storm that swept across the area during the May long weekend.

The City of Kitchener said clean up of the park will begin Wednesday, and crews will be on-site all week using large equipment to remove the timber.

“I’m just surprised it’s taken this long for clean up to happen, because it’s been most of the summer nobody has been able to really enjoy walking through the bush,” said Wiens.

The wood lot at Idlewood saw the most intensive damage in the area from the spring storm, according to the city.

The City’s Manager of Forestry, Josh Shea, said crews have been busy addressing storm damage for weeks. The clean up has been based on priority.

“Our main priority at first was cleaning up the major hazards,” said Shea. "On the streets and in our major active parks. Cleaning up trees on private properties and then we can focus our efforts on something like Idlewood.”

City staff estimated the clean up and recovery efforts for the May storm has cost about $1.5 million.

“They have equipment that can lift and move full-sized logs or trees, so we anticipate clean up [in Idlewood Park] taking us about a week total,” said Shea.

Shea added: “there’s about 150 [trees] which are standing, meaning they were damaged, broken, dangerous and have to come down. Then 100 or 100 plus that are knocked down and laying on the ground currently.”

He said once the wood is cleared from the park, the contractors will be giving it a second life - turning the wood into building materials and firewood.

Wilmer Irwin lives right next door to Idlewood and said he can’t wait for crews to begin.

“We’ve been waiting for the big clean up, but they’ve been very busy,” said Irwin.