TO MOST people Lower Little Park is a place {o stroll, 10 relax, to have lunch and to enjoy. But-to Tim Taron it’s almost like a combal zone — a place where trecs are viclims of a war and a place where he and his city recreation department crew act as MASH-type medics. ‘Taron’s the foreman of the crew and has worked in the park and at- other city locations since 1979, - There isn’t a tree in the park that hasn’t been scarred by knives, = struck by vehicles or damaged by having ‘limbs tom off. “Every tree in this park has been patched up or fixed at one lime or another. Some have had things happen to them over and over again,’’ says Taron. _ All-that vandalism is why, for instance, you never see lower limbs on. trees in the park. They’ve simply been torn off over the years. “These trees aren’t like the ones you'd see in the bush. They’ve been changed. They’re different,"’ Taron noted, Ina way, missing lower limbs is good because as the tree grows taller, those limbs that do survive are protected because they are higher up and out of reach. ‘There’s also the matter of theft. Taron estimates he’s planted 400 trees over the past 15 years, “They just disappeared, They never had a chance to grow,’’ said Taron. As he talked, Taron pointed to the few remaining trees running in a row on the verge of the park and the large parking lot on its wesiem boundary, “There could have been 60 trees there, in three staggered lines of 20. They’ve gone,”’ he said. Taran’s at the point where it is simply uneconomical to plant any tree that has less than a two-inch diameter. Under that size, trees aré more prone to permanent damage if vandalized. Yet those years of taking care of vandalized trees have given Taron experience in making them healthy once again. A tom limb or bark that’s been ripped away exposes a tree’s in- hards, making it prone to insects and disease.” ‘ree doc heals wounds The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, June 22, 1994 - AS News In Brief CITY WORKS Dave Kawineky ¢ and Greg Merritt work with recreation foreman Tim Taron to move a Lower Little Park ‘tree away fram the library expansion project. The front end loader was used to gently lift tha tree up and to take it to its new home. Late each spring, Taron uses a knife to make nicks around the wound. It reminds the tree that it is in- jured, encouraging healing sap to Tun and eventually close the wound with new bark. “As long as you give a tree half a chance, it’ll live,” said Taron. “The sap is the healing portion of the tree,” . He’s closed wounds as wide as PRO - 4MEG RAM *RAM) COMPUTERS IBM COLBOLT BLUE LIGHTNING - 75 MHZ VESA LOCAL BUS SYSTEM - 3.5 FLOPPY DRIVE - 101 ENHANCED KEY BOARD - IBM 280 MEG HARD DRIVE 12MS - 1 MEG ATI VLB VIDEO CARD - SUPER VGA MONITOR .28 LOW RADIATION - LOGITECH MOUSE - DOS 6.2 & WINDOWS 3.1 °2,229 12 inches using the nick method. Taron’s most recent effort was to move four trees that would otherwise have been cut down be- cause of the space needed for the library expansion. “Give me and my crew the time, I can move anything,’’ he said. One tree, an oak that Taron calls a ‘mother tree”? is his favourite because it takes its nuts CD-} - 16 BIT SOUND CARD - TWO MPEG TITLES REEL MAGIC MULTIMEDIA ‘SYSTEM ~ PLAYS FULL SCREEN VIDEOCD, LASER MOVIES, 3DO & MPEG TITLES - SONY DOUBLE SPEED CD-ROM CARD } 12 Oo" 00 (with om MPC SYSTEM - PANASONIC DOUBLE SPEED CD-ROM - 16 BIT SOUND BLASTER SOUND - DELUXE SPEAKERS - JOCD TITLES 83 9 9 a salem) CALL FOR CUSTOM CONFIGURATIONS ON 486 AND PENTIUM SYSTEMS. For Vancouver prices & home town service, phone/Fax Ter r ace 798-2491 (7 days a week - day or night) and uses them to grow new stock elsewhere. Approximately 10 other trees were Jost to the expansion. A backhoe was first used to cut atound each tree, taking care to ensure that the core root structure remained intact, A front end loader operator then carefully scooped up the tree and its roots before- moving it to a new spol.