On Sunday, Jan. 20th, a group of neighbours and citizens gathered in front of the gate at 1201 Fort Street. They offered their thanks and goodbyes to the 29 beautiful trees expected to soon be removed. The developer has sent notices of blasting work to begin in early February, so the trees will be gone any day now.
Thank-you to all participants for gathering to Honour the Trees at 1201 Fort Street Jan 20th.
On this clear night of a lunar eclipse, people gathered to express their sense of loss at this soon to be developed site, where a rare, diverse and mature urban forest now exists.
Twenty-nine trees will be cut down, including two 150-year-old giant sequoias, English and Garry Oaks.
Special thanks go to Rockland neighbours Geanine Robey, Don Cal and Janet Simpson for their volunteer communications for this event.
Special thanks also to the Gettin’ Higher Choir members who sang a lovely song about trees, a moment of silence offered for these trees that are now alive as we are, a poem about trees read by a participant, and art by a Rockland neighbour.
There were stories from the City’s archive of how an Indigenous Lakota man called “Sequoia” (George Guess) was honoured, for creating the written language of the Cherokee nation.
Another story, verified by the niece of Ms. Smiley who started the Truth Centre, told of English
Oaks, grown here from acorns brought from the English garden of Wilberforce, where the end of slavery was conceived and made into law. All the trees to be felled were named, 10 of these being Protected Trees and those with critical root zones at risk, mainly Garry Oaks.
By candlelight and the redding moon of the lunar eclipse, Victoria citizens talked about how the loss of this forest came to be, that the sounds of power saws cutting trees in neighbourhoods is
an ongoing concern, and how citizens’ voices can to be heard, to prevent further tree loss in this
time of Climate Change Emergency.
Planting many trees will soon need to happen to maintain a healthy environment as temperatures rise according to the 2018 UN climate change report.
Community Trees Matter Network acknowledges that we gathered on the unceded territory of the Lekwungen speaking people, the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations, and we thank them for their stewardship of this land over many millennia.
In gratitude to the trees, and appreciation of them and those who stand up for them,
Nancy Macgregor and members of Community Trees Matter Network