Volunteers plant shade trees at Wisner Park

After they finished tamping down the soil around their newly planted oak, the small group of volunteers realized the trunk was a little off-center, adjusted it with a tug, and finally stepped back to admire their work for the first time. “Look, this tree has an acorn,” realized Jacob Owens. “Somewhere there’s a squirrel that’s been waiting for this tree.” A squirrel, perhaps, but certainly a neighborhood: The tree was one of 17 planted around Wisner Playground on Saturday morning, the latest in a series of loving upgrades to the Uptown park. First, the decrepit old pavilion and its store of dead pigeons was demolished in early 2010.