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The quick read: Five hundred native trees and shrubs go into the ground in Waterfront Park this morning, Tuesday, November 10, to create Kelowna's Hero Forest — a living memorial to all fallen members of the Canadian Armed Forces, in place for Remembrance Day tomorrow. The planting is the fall community event of a Memorial Cup legacy project led by Trees for Life and the City of Kelowna, with the Canadian Hockey League and Kubota Canada. Volunteers gather from 9:30 a.m.

Five hundred trees and shrubs.

That is what goes into the ground in Waterfront Park today, and every one of them is a memorial.

A forest for the fallen

Kelowna's new Hero Forest commemorates all fallen members of the Canadian Armed Forces.

The planting was deliberately timed for today, Tuesday, November 10, so the forest is in place for Remembrance Day tomorrow.

The species going in are all native to this valley: water birch, trembling aspen, black cottonwood, sandbar willow, red osier dogwood, Bebb's willow, Pacific willow, choke cherry, wood's rose and sitka alder.

They were chosen to restore a healthy bank of urban greenspace feeding into Okanagan Lake, not just to look good for a day.

Born from the Memorial Cup

The forest is a legacy of the 106th Memorial Cup, hosted by the Kelowna Rockets in May.

That matters, because the Memorial Cup itself began as a remembrance to fallen Canadian military personnel.

The project is led by Canadian non-profit Trees for Life and the City of Kelowna, in collaboration with the Canadian Hockey League and Memorial Cup title partner Kubota Canada.

City crews broke ground in April to clear invasive species and prepare the site, and a ceremonial event was held on May 31, ahead of the championship game.

Today is the community planting the project promised for the fall.

How to take part

Volunteers gather from 9:30 a.m. to help plant.

Anyone who cannot make it can still take part: community members can donate to have a Hero Tree planted in honour of a veteran, living or deceased, through Trees for Life.

It is a fitting way to mark Remembrance Day.

Stone monuments are important, and Kelowna has them.

But a forest grows, and it gives back shade, habitat and clean air for decades, long after the speeches are over.

That is a memorial that keeps working.

Tomorrow, when the city gathers at the cenotaph, there will be 500 new reasons to remember, standing in the park.

Sources: KelownaNow, November 2026; Canadian Hockey League, May 15, 2026; Kelowna Grapevine, November 6, 2026. Note: KelownaNow places the planting in Waterfront Park; the Grapevine lists the volunteer gathering at Rotary Marsh Park from 9:30 a.m.