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Media Type : Newspaper Article
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Community : Bond Head
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Description : It's taken only two years for the Bond Head & District Horticultural Society to transform a barren piece of ground, into the Scotch Settlement Arboretum. The plot of land, adjacent to Highway 400 at the 5th Line of Bradford West Gwillimbury, was a stony, weed-covered plot when the first tree was planted in 1994. On June 22nd, as a piper played in the background, Bradford West Gwillimbury Mayor Frank Jonkman cut the ribbon, officially opening the Arboretum - which now contains 145 trees, as well as flower bed, and groomed pathways. There are ash trees, maples, oaks, black walnut, hawthorn and elm, pines, fir and spruce, taking root in the re-worked and fertilized soil. The Horticultural Society hopes to plant examples of every native Canadian species of tree. The idea is to create not only an attractive park, but provide a living memorial to the early settlers, who colonized the Scotch Settlement circa 1820. Members of the Tree Planting Committee had praise for the "generosity and community spirit" of those who have contributed to the Arboretum, from Bill Patton, Parks & Recreation Department employee who hand-crafted a wooden sign in his spare time, to all of those who have donated and dedicated a tree.