Looking for some remarkable trees

BY ALBERT KRAMBERGER

editor@transcontinental.ca

If you know of any special trees growing in the West Island, you should contact those in charge of the Remarkable Trees project.

The project is a collective effort between the Morgan Arboretum and the West Island Heritage Society, which is sponsored by the West Island local development centre.

The new project will take an inventory of remarkable trees in the West Island. A summer student, with some financial help from Service Canada, will be hired to carry out the fieldwork until September, said Christina Idziak, the curator of McGill University’s Morgan Arboretum in Ste. Anne de Bellevue.

“We’re going to take an inventory of trees from community to community,” she said. “We’ll ask city officials and citizens to help us locate remarkable trees. They can look on their lawns, streets or parks.”

Once a tree has made the grade, project managers will follow up on its health. “We will GPS them so we can follow up on them years later,” Idziak said.

What could make a tree ‘remarkable’ is its size, age, species, shape, location or any historical significance.

“Why should we conserve these trees?” Idziak asked rhetorically. “It’s because they reflect the culture and history of our region, they’re part of our community,” she said, adding she has no expectations as to how many trees will make the final heritage list. “There are some criteria to follow so some will be filtered out.”

Anne Collette, head of the West Island Heritage Society, said one of the aims of her group is to preserve the natural history of the region.

After the heritage trees are located and recorded this summer, some may be included on an updated map being planned next year for the Heritage Bike Trail, she said.

“It will be considered, maybe some trees in nature parks or in specifics areas can be added to the map,” she said. “But the tree project is more of a heritage mission. We have documented heritage homes now it’s heritage trees.”

The Remarkable Trees project and the sixth annual Heritage Bike Trail were launched last Wednesday at the Dorval Museum on Lakeshore Drive.

West Islanders can take the Heritage Bike Trail by following a map that points out close to 100 key buildings, homes and sites of historical significance along the lakeshore and riverfront around the West Island.

For more information about the bike trail or the heritage society, check www.sdspoi.ca. For more on the arboretum, check www.morganarboretum.org.