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A Tree or Two

FTLComm Manitoba August 6, 1998




Poets are not the only people to get pretty excited about growing wood. Many of the prairie cities, Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton and Calgary are actually urban forests and this is true of smaller centres as well.

Over the years we get to spot a tree that just stands out from the rest. Some of the best in Saskatchewan include the one in the middle of Fairford Street first block West of Main Street in Moose Jaw, it fills the whole of the street.

The second best is the lone raintree on a knoll several miles North of Hodgeville, then there is a poplar East of the Elementary school on the Red Earth reserve that defines the word "big" when it comes to the Aspen tree.

Manitoba has a large number of hardwood trees and seems to have the right climate to really get things into high gear. The tree at left fills the back yard and the

Trees

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree;

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet-flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain'
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by folls like me,
But only God can make a tree.

Joyce Kilmer

neighbour's with its massive branches in a residential section of Winnipeg and though it is big it is not the only one of its kind but one of many.

From Portage la Prairie to Brandon, along number one highway the province has seen fit to bend the road a bit to preserve some remarkable examples and has even planted some to give the drive some variation and beauty. We want to share some of these trees with you.