The November announcement that the city’s plans had been altered to save four additional trees was little comfort for members of the Save Officers’ Square group, who are still lamenting the planned removal of trees such as this one, known locally as “the Calithumpian tree,” due to the staging area used by a local theatre troupe.
In May of 2018, the city council of Fredericton, New Brunswick, announced a plan to renovate the downtown area known as Officers’ Square, a historic site which was a centre of military activity when the city was garrisoned by the British and Canadian armies at various times between 1785 and 1914.
The announcement of the $8.9 million upgrade, which would include a permanent bandstand and a skating rink in winter months, was met with outcry and protests from residents concerned over the loss of historic features, the potential for disturbing archeological remains and the fact that 19 trees would be removed from the square as part of the plan. The city has since announced that plans have been altered and eight trees in total would be spared, but many residents are still concerned.
Upon the announcement in May, the Save Officer’s Square (SOS) group was formed to organize resistance against the plan. The group collected over 10,000 signatures on a petition and wrapped trees with banners noting their planned removal. For a time in the summer, one protester chained himself to a tree. Spokesperson Beth Biggs said, in an interview in September, that the square’s historic value should have been weighed more heavily against the renovation plan.
“The trees are a character-defining element of Officers’ Square, which gives it its national and provincial heritage status,” says Biggs. “The whole project should have been approached from a heritage point of view, meaning the consultants who did the plan for the city should have been instructed to maintain the character-defining elements.”
The Save Officers’ Square group filed a Request for Information with the city and received documents from 2016, showing that the city had planned to remove the trees long before the plans were made public or any consultation had been done. A Heritage Impact Assessment had also not been completed.
The public were not the only ones blindsided by the announcement— most members of the Fredericton Tree Commission, established to help manage and protect Fredericton trees, were never briefed on the plan until it was made public.
“I did feel a little bulldozed,” Sarah Weatherby, chair of the tree commission told CBC in May. “They definitely weren’t coming to talk to us about our advice . . . they were telling us, ‘This is what’s happening and why.”
Weatherby resigned from the commission in June.
After a long summer of protest, the city council voted in November to alter the plan to save a total of eight trees in the square, by eliminating a planned corner entrance.
“This has been a long community conversation,” Fredericton Mayor Mike O’Brien said in a news release. “The revised plan for Officers’ Square strikes the right balance of conserving character-defining trees, as we instructed staff to do, while ensuring heritage is respected and responding to how residents use the Square.”
Councillor Bruce Grandy, chair of the city’s development committee, said in the same release that the project was moving to detailed construction drawings with an aim to begin construction in the spring of 2019. The release also noted that protecting the mature trees is expected to increase the total cost to over $9.1 million.
The city of Fredericton did not make a spokesperson available for an interview with Tree Service Canada.
Biggs and SOS were happy that the revised plans would save additional trees, but they do not see their task as completed.
“The best thing about tonight’s vote is it saves trees,” Biggs posted to the SOS Facebook page shortly after the announcement. “This is not a night to stand down, but a night to only increase the opportunity for public will to prevail.”
The SOS group is requesting a Heritage Impact Assessment be completed for the entire Garrison District and are calling on council to fulfill a promise to consult the public during the detail design phase.
— Matt Jones