Marking changed landscape at Allen Brook’s ‘Tree Island’

Allen Brook School kindergarten students joined local naturalist Chapin Kaynor and artist/ecologist Brian Collier last Wednesday in a dedication of Collier’s art installation in the “Tree Island Forest Park” area outside the school.

Collier’s artwork is designed as a temporary marker of ecological change on the sloping parcel — which has become a learning space and forest park located between the school and the Williston Fire Department building off Talcott Road.

Allen Brook kindergartners came up with the Tree Island name. Along with Sustainable Williston volunteers, Vermont Master Naturalist volunteers, Intervale Center staff and others, they have planted about 175 native trees, and removed invasive species, there over the last two years.

Last Wednesday’s event was to honor the change taking place on the land, which is in transformation from an abandoned pasture in the 1980s to early stage forest. It was also a celebration of Earth Day.

Collier has installed several ecological change markers around Vermont, including in Stowe, Colchester and Hinesburg. Visit www.changemarkers.briandcollier.net for more information.