Living memorial seen from the air honours WWI soldiers from Sarnia

It’s been ten years since a living memorial to First World War soldiers was planted in Sarnia by local scouts.

The memorial is a forest of Autumn Blaze Maples planted in the shape of a cross at Heritage Park in Sarnia.

“The thing that I like the most about it is really the shape of a cross stirs up emotion,” said photographer Shaun Antle of Oh Me Nerves Photography. Antle used a drone to take still photos and videos of the memorial from above.

He’s releasing the images on Remembrance Day through his YouTube channel and website as his way of showing appreciation to veterans.

“The fact that we can fly a drone to take a photo. The fact that we can stand here. The freedoms and liberties that we have, provided to us by those who served, those who continue to serve, and those who paid the ultimate sacrifice,” said Antle.

A drone image of a WWI memorial forest in Heritage Park in Sarnia. (Courtesy of Shaun Antle, Oh Me Nerves Photography)

There are 102 trees in total in the living memorial, each representing a WWI soldier from Sarnia who never came home.

Scouts Canada Leader, Mark Hornblower, one of the project’s architects, said that according to local historians, it’s something that should have been done decades earlier.

“When they put the cenotaph in and built it, the intent was to plant trees in memory of those soldiers as well,” he explained. “So unwittingly we created this living memorial to those who sacrificed their lives.”

As time marches on, we become further and further removed from war history in Canada. That’s why those involved in the project say tributes such as the Heritage Park trees are integral to keeping remembrance alive.

Scouts Canada leader John Barker said that in Canada, we have been shielded from war.

“So many immigrants coming over here now and finding shelter from whatever conflict is going on in their home country, and they certainly understand what it means, and we don’t,” said Barker. “And, all the stories can often get lost or misinterpreted, and it just drifts off because all the people with the stories gradually disappear.”

The memorial can also be seen along Highway 40, Veterans Parkway, in southeast Sarnia.

“It’s an amazing feeling to know that I get to be a small part of providing something that many just don’t get to see,” said Antle.