Christine Snyder would have loved it.

The late Kailua arborist, a victim of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, had nurtured a lush vision of Magic Island, laboring before her death to transform the urban park with a ring of trees.

After four years, that transformation will be complete Saturday — and Snyder's memory honored — when a group of volunteers plant the final 10 trees of her plan.

This last phase also includes 24 coconut trees and a monkeypod tree that the city's Division of Urban Forestry planted recently. All told, 155 trees were added to Magic Island under Snyder's plan. Some were planted in May 2000, before her death, and others afterward, in November 2001.

Beach heliotropes. Coconut trees. Milos. A monkeypod tree. They all seem to be flourishing.

Snyder would tell her friends at The Outdoor Circle, where she was a landscape and planting project manager, that the trees would form "a lei of aloha."

"She understood what shade and beauty can add to a location and how a place can be transformed by trees," said Mary Steiner, chief executive officer of The Outdoor Circle.

Steiner stood amid the newly planted palms on the far makai end of Magic Island, beaming at the changed landscape.

"Before, it was pretty sparse and bare," Steiner said. "They had a few monkeypods and a banyan that is beautiful. But there was not a whole lot out there."

Snyder and Steiner were close friends, working together nearly every day for six years. The two women had attended a national urban forestry conference in Washington, D.C., just before the terrorist attacks.

But they were traveling on separate routes to get home.

Steiner wound up in Toronto. Snyder wound up on United Airlines Flight 93, which was hijacked by terrorists and crashed into a Pennsylvania field, killing everyone aboard. Snyder was 32.

In the weeks that followed, trees across the nation were planted as a tribute to Snyder, including a koa tree on the Big Island and a pua kenikeni outside the 'Aikahi Fire Station.

The Magic Island trees planted that November 2001 were put in the ground by still-grieving friends. The mood this week is more upbeat.

Snyder was highly respected in Hawai'i's tight-knit circle of tree professionals. Many of them will be there to help from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, said Kimberly Hillerbrand, a landscape and planting manager with The Outdoor Circle. Organizers expect about 100 people. Probably only half of them knew Snyder.

"Some people knew Chris and her vision and they want to help fulfill that dream for her," Hillerbrand said. "Others are environmentalists and they believe in the value of parks."

The last time volunteers worked on Snyder's "lei of aloha," they planted a milo tree on the 'ewa side of Magic Island. It's growing strong and tall and provides shade to a concrete bench built by the city.

The bench is dedicated to Snyder, "Honolulu's Arborist Extraordinaire." Hillerbrand and Steiner take a seat and admire the view of ocean.

"She was passionate about the environment," Steiner said. "And she was an activist. She understood the role trees played in the environment."