Bytown exhibit explores history of urban forests, Features growth timeline, looks at value to cities

Posted Feb 9, 2012 By Michelle Nash

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EMC news - A new exhibit at a downtown museum commemorates a historic Tunney's Pasture-area tree and tells the story of how important trees are to an urban landscape.

The Bytown Museum launched Six Moments in the History of an Urban Forest on Jan. 24. The exhibit examines the relationship between trees and an urban environment. From planting, managing and using trees to beautify a neighbourhood, curators Joanna Dean and William Knight built the exhibit to touch on the love-hate relationship people have with trees.

"There are a lot of trees in the city and they do constitute a forest, just interwoven between the urban landscape," Knight said. "Trees are beautiful, we love them, but there is a tension between wanting to beautify and living with them. They are alive and they have their own agenda."

The entrance to the exhibit has a 110-kilogram piece of a bur oak that was recently cut down in Ottawa's west end. According to a study of the tree's rings, it was planted in 1857 near the Ottawa River on Northwestern Avenue. The tree was cut down to make way for a redevelopment of the property.

Residents in the Champlain Park neighbourhood fought to save the tree, but it was cut down in the fall. Dean spoke to the property owner and was allowed to take part in the removal of the old burr oak tree.

"It is a wonderful big artifact and it is a local story and also a more universal story because if you went anywhere in the country you would probably find a similar story," Knight said. "We tend to sometimes think of a forest as a static thing, like trees have always been there, but they grown and move and this exhibit shows that."

Sharing curatorial duties with Dean, Knight helped research the topic and has worked side-by-side with Dean since last spring to build the exhibit panels and have it ready for opening day.

"We are really excited about the show," Knight said. "I think it is unusual topic for a museum and I hope people find the title interesting."

The show is separated into six "moments": the history of planting in an urban environment, mapping of an urban tree landscape, tree planting programs, diseases that have affected trees over the years, the role of arborists having a more prominent role in the urban landscape and, finally, the cutting down of the burr oak.

The biggest challenge for the exhibit was determining how to talk about an urban forest without bringing trees inside, but with photographs and the large piece of the burr oak at the front, the feeling of having just walked into a forest is achieved.

"Hopefully it will appeal to a range of people because trees are in your backyard," Knight said.

Arborist tools are also on display, on loan from an Arnprior tree-cutting company.

"During the Dutch elm disease, which decimated the tree cover, it opened up an opportunity for arborists in the city," Knight said. "Arborist was on the front line of that disease."

There will also be a separate room dedicated to the long-gone lover's walk, which was a promenade that hugged the back of Parliament Hill.

There will be large displays of photographs that depict what the lover's walk was like from the 1860 to 1930, when it was officially closed.

Six Moments in History of an Urban Forest will run until May 13. Knight will be at the museum on Feb. 12 from 2 to 3 p.m. for a guided tour of the exhibition.

michelle.nash@metroland.com




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