National Tree Day

Wednesday, September 24, 2025, was National Tree Day – a day to honour the vital role trees play in our lives. In recognition of this special day Tree Action Arbre, a community working group of Transition Cornwall+ hosted a guided tree walk in the evening. You might have noticed someone walking around the downtown in a tree costume. If so, you would have seen Tree Action Arbre’s Chair, Lynn Macdonell, expressing her appreciation for the trees’ contribution to the ecosystem.

We gathered at the Tiny Forest Library on Sydney Street on the east side of the Cornwall Public Library. This miniature urban forest was launched in the fall of 2019, as a learning opportunity and to take an important step towards climate change. The small forest includes native trees such as the Black Elderberry and the Saskatoon Serviceberry.

Our guide and resident tree expert, Elaine Kennedy, led our group down Sydney to Third, and then Amelia to Second, which turned out to be a diverse cross section of mature trees. We examined leaves of Silver, Sugar, Red, and Japanese maples, noting their distinguishing number of lobes, shapes, and stem colours. We were shown a Female Ginko tree, a rare sight in the city where only the male trees are usually planted. The reason for this is that female trees produce sticky foul-smelling fruit when crushed by foot or vehicle traffic. I also learned that a Bur Oak gets its name from the bur-like bristles around the caps on its acorns, and that tapioca is put at the bottom of elderberry pies to absorb the juice and keep the pies from being runny.

It was a beautiful mild fall evening for this outing, and any day that I learn something new is a good day.

For more information about the Tree Action Arbre visit their Facebook page or the Transition Cornwall+ website under “Action Groups” at https://transitioncornwall.com/