The faith community of St. Thomas, Chilliwack thought about it for a few years. They pondered it. They considered the dangerous condition of the old cherry trees on the church property and the heavy shade they created over the Memorial Garden. And so they had to come down.
BC Hydro had taken responsibility for pruning the trees in recent years to keep the branches from interfering with electrical wires. The leadership of the Parish in regular consultation with the congregation concluded that keeping the 90+ year old trees now in extremely poor health was a safety and security issue and there was strong agreement and financial support from the community to go ahead with removal.In the first image below and on the homepage we see the tree closest to the church entrance (the other tree is located 30 feet to the right of the tree in the images) as it looked in February of 2012. The other six photos chronicle the removal of the trees on March 5th, 2013.
St. Thomas’ rector, the Reverend John Sovereign is looking forward to better weather when the Memorial Garden will be bathed in sunshine after decades of shade. He is also enjoying the clean, healthy look of the grounds now that the trees are removed but he does admit that it seems that “something is missing.”
Most of the branches are gone on this, the left tree. The right tree is adjacent out of the photo.
The big branches are gone too
Loading the stump on the flat deck
Grinding the stump by Top that Tree Services
Repair of the lawn by Valley Outdoors, the Reverend John Sovereign's son Bradley on the left and his son-in-law Jamie Finley on the right.
The entrance to St. Thomas' late in the afternoon, March 5th, 2013
PHOTOS: John Sovereign