A 300 year old Douglas Fir tree was named "Charlie's Tree" after a World War I veteran Charlie Perkins planted ivy at its base and lay wreaths on it to honour his fallen First World War pilot friends. Charlie Perkins, who died in 1986, moved to the Fraser Valley from Vancouver around 1907, but subsequently joined the Royal Flying Corp and returned home from the First World War in 1919. First World War flight instructor Charlie Perkins, who after returning to Canada in 1919 planted ivy around the base of the 300-year-old Douglas fir — then on the Perkins property, but for several decades later a common sight on the south side of Highway 1 just west of 192nd Avenue — in memory of the veterans. Wreaths, flags, a white cross and other mementoes were placed at the site. When plans were announced decades later for the Surrey leg of the Trans-Canada Highway (now Hwy. 1) to run through the glade where the tree stood, Charlie began a fight to save it — a fight that was ultimately successful when ‘Flying’ Phil Gaglardi, head of the highways department at the time, agreed to build around the tree, thus saving it and a small park around it. The tree fell onto Highway 1 near 200th St and caused a minor accident and traffic backup Saturday night, in Surrey, BC., August 1, 2016.
After Charlie Perkins, Great War pilot, centuries old Douglas fir fell in 2016, the Friends of Old Canada Society erected a stone marker:
"The Ivy planted at the base of the great Douglas fir on this site was a memorial to North American World War Royal Flying Corps pilots. The pilots trained in Canada and US by British Columbian Charlie Perkins, the man behind the memorial.
A replacement Douglas fir was planted by the roadside on Highway 1 near 192 Avenue as a Memorial to fallen soldiers in 2018.
The tree is maintained by Royal Canadian Air cadets.