Journal Staff
So you’ve got a dead tree in the yard and don’t know what to do with it.
If you’re like a growing number of Sarnians, you need only call yourself a stump artist and upcycle it into a work of art.
Tree stump art has spread across the city and owes its genesis to the emerald ash borer, an insect that wiped out thousands of Sarnia’s ash trees.
In 2010, a group of people at Hobbyfest were standing beneath a dying ash in Centennial Park that had long shaded the Triple C carving group’s display.
When city arborists removed dozens of infested park trees later that year they left six trunks standing for carvers to turn into rooted sculptures.
The idea of salvaging something from the borer’s devastation caught on, and dozens of residents have since taken a crack at creating their own work of art or hired professional chainsaw artists to carve one for them.
Local examples range from human faces to animals and birds, as well as fairy houses, mushrooms and a number of abstract pieces.
So before you unearth that bothersome tree stump in the yard just think of the possibilities. You might never look at a dead tree the same way again.
