Strong as an oak, Bert's memory lives on

Last Friday, Oct. 4, a beautiful chinkapin oak sapling was planted outside of Niwot Market in honor of the market's late owner, Bert Steele, with a small personal ceremony at 10:30 a.m. The oak will grow to provide shade over the Niwot Market, where Bert loved to work and help the community.

The tree honoring Steele began as part of a project started in March 2023 to plant a few trees around Niwot. The focus of the project changed with the loss of Steele, whose life had an amazing impact on Niwot.

"When we lost Bert on August 7th of 2023, we decided to do a 'Bert's Tree' project in his honor," Randy Cantu, a coordinator of the tree planting project and an old neighbor of Steele, said about the project. "I contacted the property owner of the building that houses Niwot Market, Samagra Melville and her partner David Schaldach, about allowing us to plant a tree on the property. They were very enthusiastic about the project, having been close friends with Bert and his family for many years. I worked with them and Josh Morin, and Seth and Alison Steele, to decide on a location and timeline. We wanted to choose a location and a tree that embodied the spirit of Bert, and that would be a continuing tribute to his legacy for many years."

The tree planting itself was organized by the Niwot Community Connection (NCC), and coordinators Dawn Server, Pat Murphy, and Cantu. Other NCC members and Melville participated as well in planning and executing the project.

Two trees were planted by Niwot resident Josh Morin with We Love Trees, and Schaldach from Arbor Vital Tree Care, which was recently purchased by We Love Trees. Their associates, Evan and Aden Holland, were on hand to dig the holes for the trees.

The tree planted for Bert is a chinkapin oak. The other tree planted is a bigtooth maple, which will help revitalize the soil so that both trees can thrive. The trees, provided by Arbor Vital Tree Care, were purchased with funds from pancake breakfasts donated by the Niwot Market and the generosity of the community.

"It's amazing to see how much everyone cared about Dad... [and] it's wonderful to have so much support," Seth Steele said during the ceremony after the tree planting.

The place where Bert's tree was planted, to the far right of the Niwot Market patio, started out as a gravel and rock patch with old mining equipment. The equipment was moved to several different places, mostly near or around Niwot Market.

Even with the gravel and equipment moved, it took a significant amount of time to make land next to the Niwot Market Patio habitable for trees. Under the gravel were several layers of inhospitable sheets of plastic weed block and rocks that would harm the growth of a young tree and had to be removed.

However, the NCC, Melville, and the tree companies didn't want to waste the rock, but decided to give it back to the community with their project in the spirit of Bert, by taking the time to give away the rocks on Facebook marketplace, which took several months.

Melville is planning to do more work to the land around the trees which will help preserve and recycle rainwater that runs off of the market's roof. This will help water both Bert's tree and the community's sapling. One of the planned additions is a dry riverbed structure to direct rainwater toward the trees, and the back wall of the patio will also eventually be removed.