Memorial Commemorates Felled Trees

This is your family,” said a City of Gulfport employee recently to Gulfport artist Crea Eagan as he looked out over the permanent plantings in Clymer Park, which borders Beach Boulevard. This comment was her inspiration to create the Fallen Tree City Memorial installation for stop number 16 on the Art Jones 2019 tour, she said. With the help of several dozen volunteers, 3,763 white stakes were hammered into the ground to represent the trees that were cut down by permit in 13 cities throughout Pinellas County in 2019. In the Gulfport section, each of 163 tree stakes was decorated with a yellow ribbon, a label that gave a reason for its cause of death and removal such as it was “cracking” and “losing large limbs,” and a miniature headstone-like marker that identified the type such as jacaranda, palm, oak or pine. A total of 500 live trees were available for free for attendees to plant in their yards in an effort to replace some of what has been lost, said Eagan. One of her goals is to track the progress of the plants, she said. The temporary environmental art installation was present from Saturday, December 7 through part of Tuesday, December 10.