Tree transformation

Four score and seven years ago, the face of Memorial Avenue was drastically changed.

Then known as the Fort William Highway, the route that connected twin cities Port Arthur and Fort William was adorned with 175 trees, in honour of the veterans who laid down their lives in the First World War.

The trees, donated by the Port Arthur Rotary Club and planted in May 1926, a month before the Memorial Avenue moniker was approved by town council, are long gone.

On Saturday, in celebration of Arbour Day, a group of dedicated volunteers descended on a vacant city-owned lot at the intersection of Memorial Avenue and Beverly Street.

With the help of backhoes and good old-fashioned elbow grease, the group planted the first dozen calliper trees, a mixture of American basswood, red maple, white oak, bay willow, white spruce, blue spruce and a variety of perennial shrubs.

The goal, said Brad Doff, the city’s urban forestry promotion specialist, said the idea was to make the space, located along what will soon be part of the Trans Canada Trail, more vibrant and functional.

“There’s a lot of potential for a site like this to be very impactful for our city and the local neighbourhood,” Doff said.
The benefits are almost too many to list, he added.

“We forget about the importance of greenery, especially green infrastructure and urban forests, simply because they are working behind the scene, functioning, providing a number of different services for us; things like cleaning the air, helping mitigate some of our storm water for us. There are social issues, economic stimulus and it helps even to calm traffic.”

Rod Seabrook loves trees.

On Saturday he was at the site, shovel in hand.

The history is just one of the reasons why he thinks beautifying the tract of land is such a good idea. But it’s an important one, he said.

“It’s the area that’s dedicated to the remembrance of the soldiers from the First World War. As people who lived here for a long time remember, Memorial Avenue was once lined with willow trees. That’s not the case anymore,” Seabrook said.

“But this is a small way to bring some of that back and bring a re-focus to Memorial Avenue and what it was intended to do.”

The day’s activities included an Ask The Expert station about planting and maintaining trees, as well as a kids’ station for the younger set.