Downtown trees come down


Workers take the top off an aging conifer in St. Jean Baptiste Park Wednesday morning. A total of six to eight trees are set to be removed from the park.

Photos by Lucie Roy and Stephen Dafoe

Morinville – The sound of chainsaws have been heard in downtown Morinville this week as the Town of Morinville has begun a $35,000 project to remove, trim and plant trees in the community. The monies allotted for in the 2012 budget will mostly be used for purchase and planting; however, $10,000 is to be used to employ an arborist to trim and prune larger trees.

That work began Tuesday with the removal of a pair of dying conifers on the grounds between the Chamber office and Town Hall, and continued Wednesday with the removal of six to eight older trees in St. Jean Baptiste Park.

The plan also calls for the removal of several trees from the median on 100 Avenue by Morinville Community High School. Although the Chamber property and park will have some trees replaced, the 100 Avenue median trees will not be replaced at the request of Alberta Transportation.

Other trees will be removed on 100 Avenue in the downtown area because of shedding berries and bushy foliage, the former a messy obstacle to navigate on the sidewalk, the latter an obstruction to business signage.The plan is to replace the dying Schuberts with elm trees which have a higher canopy.

An avenue of trees will also be planted along 100 Street to coincide with a trail being presently developed there.

The plan is for Morinville to develop a three-year tree plan for the community.

One of the two conifer trees between Perras Place and St. Germain Place gets a trim on Tuesday morning before being neatly carved into fire wood.

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