Tree Of The Year
by Bob Walsh
It
seems that Belgium celebrates a tree of the year. This year that tree
is a Chestnut tree that survived four years of almost constant shelling
outside the city of Ypres during The Great War.
The
tree was planted during 1860 on the eastern edge of the city's medieval
ramparts, as part of a walk lined with Chestnut trees. After being
blasted down to a stump by the constant shelling it made a comeback with
four separate trunks growing out of the base trunk. The tree is now 20
meters high with a 30 meter crown. It also managed to survive WWII
when most trees in the area were cut down for fire wood. It was so
close to occupied houses they could not cut it down for fear of damaging
the houses.
The tree
stands next to the memorial to the missing at the Menin Gate. The Last
Post is sounded there every day by the city's fire fighters.
There is one other tree that survived from the 19th century in the city, a three-stemmed Hazel tree.
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