Sesquicentennial tree

Gary Webster and Lia Spigel place protective wiring around a London plane tree Monday at Birnie Park. The London plane tree was the 150th planted in La Grande in recognition of the state’s 150th birthday. DICK MASON/ The Observer

It is thus fitting that a London plane tree was planted Monday at Birnie Park during a ceremony celebrating Oregon’s sesquicentennial.

A strong, biting wind blew throughout the ceremony at which the planting of a London plane tree was completed. The tree was the 150th planted in La Grande since April as part of a sesquicentennial program conducted by the City of La Grande Urban Forestry Program.

Teresa Gustafson, the city of La Grande’s tree care educator, said it was also fitting to hold the ceremony at Birnie Park in recognition of pioneers because one of the first things people settling in the La Grande area did was plant trees with seeds they had brought. “They needed to do this because there were not many trees here then,’’ Gustafson said.

Gary Webster of the Union County Historical Society served as the keynote speaker at Monday’s ceremony. He pointed out that many people traveling along the Oregon Trail likely camped in the Birnie Park area. Most had come here after spending the previous night at the base of Ladd Canyon.

Webster noted that it was ironic that Oregon Trail pioneers were being recognized with a tree since many cut down trees in the process of getting to what is today Birnie Park. He explained that Oregon Trail travelers needed to take down trees to make the steep descent down Ladd Canyon. The trees were not toppled to clear a path but to provide drag for wagons while they were coming down. The logs, attached to the back of wagons, braked them, preventing them from running up against the oxen, horses and mules pulling them downhill.

Webster said that his father Lawson, who was born in La Grande in 1903, recalled seeing piles of small logs at the base of Ladd Canyon area while he was growing up. These logs were the ones pioneers had used decades earlier to help them get their wagons down from Ladd Canyon.

Oregon Trail travelers, after spending the night in the Birnie Park area, next made a steep trek up Table Mountain, Webster said. They then spent the night in a pasture west of Table Mountain, a portion of which Webster owns today.

The climb up Table Mountain was so steep that additional horses, oxen and mules were needed to pull wagons up. Once they had pulled one wagon up some were brought down to pull other wagons up the mountain, Webster said.

La Grande’s sesquicentennial tree planting program started in April, about two months after Oregon celebrated its 150th birthday on Feb. 14. Sites the trees have been planted on include the islands of land between sidewalks and curbs, parks, EOU, the Forestry and Range Sciences building and the Joseph Building where Union County administration offices are and the Union County Fairgrounds. Maple, oak, linden, ginkgo and river birch trees were among those planted in addition to the London plane tree.

The sesquicentennial tree planting program was directed by the La Grande Landscape and Forestry Commission. The commission is chaired by Lia Spigel and its vice chair is Joe Kresse. Bridgett Naylor, Vicki Jassenoff, Robin Mallie and Jonna True are also commission members.

The many who made the sesquicentennial tree planting program possible, Gustafson said, also included businesses and agencies serving as Community Partners. They included Abstract & Title, Anderson Perry & Associates, EOU, The Observer, Oregon Youth Authority Riverbend, Oregon Trail Electric, the U.S. Forest Service Forestry and Range Sciences Lab, the Union County Fair Board and the Union County Commission.