Fred’s Tamarack is a story of a shipyard , its workers and a tree that deserves to be recognized. Like many other old forgotten trees in Vancouver this Tamarack has a story to tell.
Today as you can see, it looks completely out of place with its protective screening around it , a lady who passed by said “it looks dead.” Well it’s a survivor , most of the other native trees were cut down, to make way for a housing development. Lucky, for when it was planted at the gate to the shipyard by some worker, he dug the hole just outside of the legal property line.
As the Tamarack looses its needles every year and grows them back in the spring, For years I had to protect the tree in the winter from being chainsawed down by tree experts who came to the office , to tell us it was dead and needed to come down . Sure it looks kind of scruffy but it is only having its “winter rest”! For years the Tamarack stood tall at the gate until it was topped for new powerlines, but it survived. In Feb 1976 Fred, the skipper of a boat the “Forest Cruiser” that worked from the B. C. Forest Service Marine Station, was killed while rescuing four other people from a sinking Beaver Float plane on the West Coast of Van. Island. All the shipyard workers agreed that our friend and hero should be recognized at the shipyard site in some way. I remembered Fred asking me about the funny looking tree at the gate one day, it looked like a tree he knew in Jamaica. From that day on the Tamarack or Larch as some people call them , was known as “FRED’S TREE.” Time has passed, the shipyard was sold , the forestry workers retired or found other jobs but the Tamarack tree, or as the Southlands residents call it “Snoopy’s Christmas Tree” is still there. The tree is a lasting tribute and reminder of our shipyard friend and Hero Fred. Fred’s Tree is located on Celtic Ave. between Balaclava Street and Carnarvon Street.
– Terry S. , Boat builder B. C. Forest Service Marine Station
Vancouver's Great Trees 