Planting Trees for the CEF

On Saturday morning, 24 October, the National Capital Commission, Library and Archives Canada and a group of volunteers planted 135 trees in Vincent Massey Park to honour the Canadian Expeditionary Force of First World War.

The event was only advertised to the media. About 35 people were present including genealogists Elizabeth and Mario Lapointe from genealogycanada.blogspot.com.

This was the second CEF planting, the first was at a park in Gatineau. A further single tree will be planted outside the LAC building in Gatineau soon. One tree, a white pine, is being planed for each battalion that served.

With seasonable temperatures, under sunny skies sheltered in the trees from the wind NCC CEO Dr. Mark Kristmanson and Librarian and Archivist of Canada Dr. Guy Berthiaume spoke briefly before planing of the pine seedlings began.


In his remarks Guy Berthiaume mentioned the digitization of the Soldiers of the First World War service files would be completed in 2018. That's a faster pace than at present. Questioned he committed that, if necessary, a second shift will be added. He also mentioned that processing of the government record backlog is now at 93% and they expect to be complete by the end of the year as committed.

Kudos to the volunteers, the youngest of whom was celebrating an 18th birthday, who gave every indication of enjoying the planting experience.