‘It came back to life:’ Trees scarred by vandals recovering in historic Halifax park | 24CA News

In the guts of downtown Halifax sits a small however beloved park recognized for its elaborate flower beds and stately timber.

For greater than 150 years, the Halifax Public Gardens have offered a quiet refuge for guests and a pristine backdrop for numerous weddings and graduations.

Just over a 12 months in the past, nonetheless, the park was left badly scarred after vandals scaled its wrought iron fences in the midst of the evening. They used an axe to hack away at greater than two dozen timber, a few of them greater than 200 years previous.

“You would think that a place that gives people so much joy and relaxation, that nobody would want to harm the gardens,” Judith Cabrita, chairperson of the non-profit Friends of the Public Gardens, mentioned in an interview this week. “To have the trees being attacked was like a personal attack for many people.”

Sean Street, a horticulture supervisor with the Halifax Regional Municipality, mentioned the preliminary prognosis for the broken timber seemed grim. In all, 33 have been broken. Three of them — principally smaller timber — needed to be lower down.

“It was a very dark time last July when we were in there,” he mentioned throughout a latest lecture at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax. “We were really uncertain about how many trees we were going to lose.”

But up to now 12 months, one thing outstanding has occurred.

In the spring, the entire survivors “leafed out,” which means they confirmed indicators of vigorous progress as workers on the park and out of doors specialists tended to their wounds.

Most of the bigger, older timber have important vitality reserves to attract on, Street mentioned, however a few of the smaller timber are having a tough time. “I can tell you that we’re going to lose more,” he mentioned, including that it might take years earlier than the total extent of the injury is understood.

Still, there are various indicators of hope. A small toba hawthorn, so badly harmed it was imagined to be lower down, has sprouted a sucker department off its predominant trunk and seems to be thriving. “It came back to life,” Street mentioned. “It looks amazing.”

Many of the timber have been patched with coconut fibres wrapped in burlap. And a few of the bigger timber have already got “wound wood”
rising within the areas the place bark was once.

“This is a best-case scenario for us,” Street mentioned. “It’s the best thing we could have hoped for.”

One of the most important timber within the park, an enormous London airplane tree estimated to be 150 years previous, seems to be therapeutic on it personal. Its wounds are already closing over. “It almost looks like it healed like an animal would heal,” Street mentioned. “Its canopy is really coming in.”

Other timber have been mended with intricate bridge grafts, which implies small branches are affixed and act like straws to hold vitamins previous the injured space. Stan Kochanoff, a decorative horticulture skilled, has been engaged on a few of the grafting. “I think most of the trees are going to be saved,” he advised the lecture at Saint Mary’s.

The good news concerning the park comes after a tough 12 months in Nova Scotia.

Last September, post-tropical storm Fiona slammed into the province and brought about injury throughout the Atlantic area. Then in May, greater than 200 properties have been destroyed by the most important wildfires the province had ever recorded. And it was solely final month that torrential rains brought about flash flooding that killed 4 individuals and washed out roads and bridges.

The early indicators of restoration contained in the Halifax Public Gardens might function a type of salve to these nonetheless reeling from a lot devastation.

“It’s quite a calming place here,” Tim Reid, a gardener who has labored on the park for 50 years, mentioned in an interview. “Almost always, people who are in here are in a pretty good mood. We’re lucky to have this place in the middle of the city.”

Billed as the one genuine Victorian backyard in North America, the six-hectare park can hint its humble beginnings to 1836. But it didn’t change into a public park till July 1867, the identical month Canada turned a nation.

The park’s gravel paths have been made huge sufficient for 2 girls carrying Victorian hoop skirts to stroll aspect by aspect. There’s an ornate bandstand, in-built 1887 to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. And amid the fountains and statues of Roman gods, it’s onerous to not discover the park’s elegant symmetry — one other Victorian trait.

When news broke final 12 months of the vandalism, police launched an investigation, and the Friends of the Public Gardens and the Public Gardens Foundation provided a $50,000 reward for info, however up to now no person has been arrested.

Cabrita mentioned guests have been thrilled to see the timber doing so nicely.

“That does not necessarily mean the trees are cured,” she mentioned. “But it’s glorious to have that rejuvenation at least this year. We’ll be doing everything we can to save them.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Aug. 9, 2023.

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