From Sackville to Dorchester, grey poplar to northern catalpa, they tower quite tremendously!
A map by Tantramar’s active living and culture department recognizing significant trees in Sackville and surrounding areas has been taking shape over the summer. Jamie Ferguson, Tantramar’s director of active living and culture, said in an interview with The Argosy that the program, Tantramar’s Terrific Trees, “gives an opportunity for trees to tell their story, much like people can tell theirs.”
Ferguson says the Terrific Trees program was developed to draw attention to the role of trees in a place’s ecology, culture, and history. Sometimes, “we forget how important they are and the value they play in the landscape,” Ferguson said. The program allows anyone to nominate a tree they find meaningful. After a nomination is submitted, the tree undergoes review by the active living and culture department. A measurement of the tree’s diameter is made, allowing for an estimate of its age. Once its species is confirmed, the tree’s information is linked to a point on a map, which provides Tantramar residents and visitors with an assortment of trees to visit.
Mapped trees are scattered throughout Sackville and Dorchester. On Hillcrest Ave., three grey poplars stand in a row, one growing around a utility pole. Across the street, a northern catalpa sends lime green leaves in all directions. In front of the Tantramar Veterans Memorial Civic Centre, a copper beech that Ferguson calls “pretty impressive” hangs its canopy over a moss and lichen-covered trunk. The paper birches which run alongside a section of the boardwalks in Waterfowl Park were one of the first points on the Terrific Trees map.
A tree Ferguson was recently made aware of is a Vimy Oak in Memorial Park. “Back in the battle for Vimy Ridge, a Canadian had taken acorns from an oak tree there, and brought them back to Canada,” Ferguson said. The acorns were grown in Ontario, and descendant saplings were sent across Canada to be transplanted as part of the centennial commemorations in 2017 and 2018 (Government of Canada, Vimy Oak Legacy Tree). Ferguson said he looks forward to adding Memorial Park’s Vimy Oak to the map, saying “we’ll just continue to build out those stories, as folks come forward in terms of that cultural or historical perspective.”
The Terrific Trees program has expanded significantly since it began last spring. A Mt.A intern worked on promoting and building the project during the summer, which led to “an uptick in nominations.” Ferguson says he “would love to see trees across all of Tantramar” receiving nominations to be included on the map. “There’s a lot of great trees on Mt.A campus as well, so it would be great to see some of those nominations come forward from professors or students.”
Beyond making nominations, Ferguson hopes people will connect to the program by going outside and spending time with the trees, describing this interaction as “a way to draw more understanding and appreciation to the natural environment around us.” If you would like to nominate a tree or find a good canopy to stand under, visit Tantramar’s Terrific Trees on the Tantramar, N.B. website.