The provincially and nationally endangered cucumber trees at Tweedsmuir Street and South Street, and the provincially and nationally threatened Kentucky coffee tree on South Street, plus 17 candidate heritage trees are among those in the most recent inventory that could be nominated to Ontario Forestry Association’s honour roll and Trees Ontario’s heritage tree program.

Complete results of the second tree inventory conducted by local volunteers, organized by the Dundas Valley Tree Keepers, will be shared with the community during a meeting on Thursday, April 15, featuring naturalist Michael Henry, who will speak on Ontario’s old growth forests.

Trees Count Too covered the areas from Little John Road to South Street, along with Tweedsmuir to Lynden, and brought the total number of officially inventoried Dundas trees to 2,278.

Each tree was assessed by local volunteers in more than 25 categories to record their species, condition and location.

Dundas Valley Tree Keepers chair Katie West said the two inventories and last year’s Heritage Tree Hunt form the basis for the group’s ongoing efforts to identify, document, honour, protect and propagate special trees in the Dundas Valley.

Part of that effort is nominating trees to the Ontario Honour Roll and the Trees Ontario Heritage Trees Program. West said nominations for both are almost complete.

The Kentucky coffee tree on South Street, plus a big-tooth aspen on Osler that was part of the Heritage Tree Hunt, have been identified by the tree-keepers group as the two trees that most meet the criteria for the Honour Roll of Trees – and may be larger than other trees already on the list.

May be eligible

“There are a number of trees from the Heritage Tree Hunt that may be eligible for the Trees Ontario heritage tree program,” West said.

“The DVTK is beginning with a nomination of the tulip tree on Cross Street, which was the winner of Best Tree Overall and expect to prepare future nominations once we become familiar with the multi-step nomination process.”

Neither of the two lists currently includes any Dundas trees. But results from the two in-depth inventory projects and last year’s Heritage Tree Hunt contest will provide any information needed by the Ontario Forestry Association and Trees Ontario.

The April 15 presentation takes place at Dundas town hall, starting at 7 p. m. and is sponsored by Environment Hamilton.

More information on the Dundas Valley Tree Keepers, including both tree inventory reports, is available at www.dundastrees.ca .