A forestry consulting firm found that about 30 per cent of the trees in the park that are more than 20 centimetres in diameter had been killed by the outbreak of the hemlock looper moth.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Stanley Park is an urban forest abutting downtown Vancouver; a beloved haven with an oceanside seawall and many kilometres of paths through the trees. But something is happening with those trees. There are stumps everywhere – gaps in the magic – as parts of the park are being logged because of an outbreak of the hemlock looper moth.
A report delivered to the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation in January by B.A. Blackwell and Associates, a forestry consulting firm, found that about 30 per cent of the trees in the park that are more than 20 centimetres in diameter had been killed by the endemic insect – approximately 20,410 trees. Another 36 per cent have experienced moderate defoliation and need to be monitored.
“Dead, looper-impacted trees are expected to decay and start failing (tops, branches, or whole trees) within the near-term and will continue over the next 20 years,” the report states, causing “unacceptable levels of risk to people and infrastructure.” Those risks include falling trees and wildfires.
Two months earlier, the Park Board had announced the “urgent removal” of approximately 160,000 trees from Stanley Park as a result of the outbreak. This work is to be done over several years, with pauses to support bird-nesting season and other considerations. More than 7,200 dead or dying trees were removed or treated between October, 2023, and March, 2024 – mostly Western hemlocks, but also some affected Douglas firs and Western red cedars. The city says this operation is necessary for the health and safety of the park and its users.
Not everyone is convinced. Vancouver resident Michael Caditz went to court this week to try to get an interlocutory injunction to prevent further tree removals. He is co-founder of the group Save Stanley Park, which, in a civil lawsuit, has argued that the real danger is being caused by logging in the park. The filing states that the logging is causing irreparable harm – with increased danger of falling trees and wildfire. “The forest will not recover for decades, if at all,” the application for the injunction states.
A hemlock looper moth crawls on a finger during a tour of old growth trees.ETHAN CAIRNS/The Canadian Press
Mr. Caditz’s small group brought in seven experts, including an arborist, plant ecologist and fire behaviour specialist. They determined, he says, that there is no scientific justification for the removals; while this outbreak has been more extensive than usual, it’s part of a recurring cycle and the looper moth is part of the ecosystem. He is fighting to stop the logging.
“It’s harmful and dangerous,” he said in an interview on Tuesday. “Not only is it unjustifiable, it’s negligent.” The hearing resumes Friday. “If we prove that there shouldn’t be any logging, then Stanley Park won’t be destroyed.”
In a promotional video, he calls the city’s response a “one-opinion process” – a reference to the Blackwell report. He is also calling for a public investigation.
Through the discovery process for the civil suit, Mr. Caditz obtained a confidential June memo communicating that the city voted privately to give the Park Board an additional $11.1-million to fund the next phase of the Stanley Park logging operation, following a $4.9-million sum that had been allotted earlier and was public knowledge. Why are important decisions like this happening in secret? Mr. Caditz wants to know.
This is all happening in the midst of a war between Vancouver’s city council and the Park Board, which Mayor Ken Sim has said should be abolished, with its responsibilities transferred to the city. The Park Board declined an interview request, citing the lawsuit. But last March, city arborist and supervisor of urban forestry Joe McLeod told the Tyee that there was an urgency to the operation: “If we had to get public approval for every tree that we remove in the city, we would never get 100-per-cent consent. People have emotional attachments to trees, for good reason. At a certain point, we have to make clinical decisions.”
New trees are being planted; more than 25,000 seedlings of species less vulnerable to the looper moth went in over the spring.
This seems to be a case of disagreeing experts, while the rest of us watch helplessly. People love that park and just want the best for it. If that means cutting down dangerous trees, please do. If that is not the right move, please stop. We are unqualified to make this call; we just adore the place and want to be able to take our kids there for a forest walk, march along the seawall with a friend, or cycle through on a crisp, sunny day.
Nothing that affects Stanley Park should be happening behind closed doors, or without the opportunity for public input. Leave the decision-making to the experts, of course. But let the rest of us know what’s going on with this place. It shouldn’t take a lawsuit.