Sundre has the potential to join the prestigious ranks of Alberta's popular outdoor destinations, says a local horticulturist.
“I think Sundre in the future is going to be the next Canmore,” Steve Bouchet-Bert, who owns the Everblue Nursery south of Sundre, recently told the Round Up.
But that won't happen without investing the time and effort to make it happen, he said.
“I got a lot of love for Sundre,” he said, adding that he feels a strong sense of loyalty to the community. However, that being said, “I think the town needs a massive facelift.”
This largely prompted his decision to donate many trees, most of which were planted at the Sundre Veterans' Homecoming Park, although a couple of others were also planted behind the new directional way-finding sign at the Visitor Information Centre as well as at the skatepark.
He focused on the memorial park and legion cenotaph because the location is a permanent fixture in Sundre, which people see as they drive in on Highway 27 from the east. The idea came to him while he was sitting at the park one day eating a sandwich for lunch at one of the picnic tables.
“I thought, ‘we can do so much better',” he said.
“I don't intend to stop there,” he said, adding he ideally would like to further pursue similar projects in the future.
Despite less-than-fruitful attempts to get previous town councils on board, he said officials were this time around more receptive to his proposal, as was the Sundre Legion, whose members gratefully welcomed his offer and strove to accommodate it any way they could.
“Everyone was very supportive,” he said.
Fred Gillies, second vice-president of the Sundre Legion, said he and his fellow legionnaires were taken aback but pleasantly surprised by Bouchet-Bert's offer to plant an oak facing in front of the cenotaph plus an additional 16 columnar aspens in a semi-circle as a backdrop for the memorial.
“He's a very modest young man,” Gillies told the Round Up, adding, “He didn't really want any recognition or any financial compensation. He just wanted to do it because he really loves Sundre.”
Legionnaire Tom Reap also provided a helping hand by purchasing and hauling in the mulch that was placed around the base of the trees, he said.
Town employee Christine Smith has also played a role in helping to maintain the site.
“It's amazing,” she said about receiving the trees, which with limited available funding would have taken her a long time to obtain.
“In my budget, I could probably have bought three trees and planted them myself, and then the next year bought another three. To get to the point that he did in one day would have taken years for me,” she said, calling his contribution “generous.”
She said Bouchet-Bert also wants to replace some of the older and dying trees, improve the local aesthetic as well as see the community grow.
“It just takes someone with a bit of initiative to get things going,” said Bouchet-Bert, adding results are inevitable once some momentum builds up.
“Sundre can be the next Canmore, but we got to get our act together — that was my little way of trying to do that,” he said, adding, “There's so much more that can be done.”
Everyone in Sundre will benefit if efforts to make the town a recognized destination comparable to Canmore become a reality, he said.
“It's what I believe in for the future betterment of the town. It'll take many years, but it's got to start.”
