Ancient Trees in Stanley Park Damaged and Cut Down by Vancouver Parks Board’s “Chainsaw Style Management”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Colin Spratt
Ancient Trees of Vancouver / BC Big Tree Committee Member
Phone: 438-995-1514
Email: colinspratt@shaw.ca

Conservationists are Alarmed as Ancient Trees in Stanley Park Are Harmed and Removed Due to Vancouver Parks Board’s Misguided Response to Hemlock Looper Outbreak

An ancient cedar stands quietly off the trail in Vancouver’s Stanley Park. Photo by Colin Spratt

Stanley Park is home to the city of Vancouver’s last ancient forest, where thousands of old-growth trees—some over 800 years old—stand as the final remnants of a lost wilderness. These irreplaceable giants, which helped make the park world-famous, are now at risk. Conservationists and members of the BC Big Tree Committee have raised serious concerns about the Vancouver Park Board’s handling of a hemlock looper outbreak. The Park Board approved and contracted the removal of dead hemlocks, but closer investigation has revealed that old-growth trees have also been harmed and a few even killed. Since late 2023, old growth cedars along well-known trails have been cut down, limbs and tops have been removed from 500+ year-old trees, and bark has been blasted off ancient cedars. A recently felled hemlock landed on Canada’s largest maple tree and BC’s largest red alder, a registered record champion tree with the BC Big Tree Registry, has also been cut down. Now, more ancient cedars are marked with hammered in flagging labeled “remove," signaling that additional old-growth trees will likely be cut down later this week.

Stanley Park’s last old-growth trees are being tagged, pruned, manicured, and in some cases cut down. Photo by Colin Spratt.

Between 2019 and 2023, a natural hemlock looper outbreak affected Stanley Park, killing many western hemlocks. In response, the Vancouver Park Board hired Blackwell and Associates Ltd. to remove dead hemlock trees near trails and infrastructure. However, neither the Park Board nor Blackwell's reports mentioned the park's thousands of living old-growth trees or its two record-sized specimens— a striking oversight given these ancient trees’ rarity and ecological significance. While removing some dead hemlocks is necessary, the approach has been too aggressive in areas with intact ancient groves.

Colin Spratt, a BC Big Tree Committee member and conservation photographer, has closely monitored the state of Stanley Park’s ancient forest. Having discovered near-record-sized trees in British Columbia, including the famous North Shore Giant in Lynn Valley, he has documented thousands of trees in the park, and runs tours showing people from around the world these trees. Spratt is deeply concerned about the current management approach. “The ancient forest of Stanley Park should be treated with the same reverence as Cathedral Grove, England’s ancient oaks, or California’s redwoods. What should be a surgical ecologically driven effort to remove only dead hemlock trees has now shifted to also cutting into living ancient cedars—cutting off limbs, tops, and even some entire living trees. The official reports all fail to even mention these old-growth trees, a glaring omission, and now some are being cut down.This approach is pure negligence. Stanley Park is the world’s only old-growth forest in the heart of a major city, and its ancient trees deserve far more respect and care,” says Spratt.

Map of Stanley Park’s remaining old growth forest with trees between 400-1000 years old in the green areas. Map by Colin Spratt.

Colin Spratt has created a map highlighting Stanley Park’s remaining ancient forest, marking these rare groves in green. These areas feature massive cedars, maples, and douglas firs, some of which have stood for many centuries. “The sections I’ve marked in green represent the last remnants of Vancouver’s original wilderness. These specific zones should be treated with the same level of respect as national parks and for the most part left undisturbed, especially the old trees themselves,” says Spratt.

Shaun Muc, a well-known conservationist, veteran big tree seeker, BC Big Tree Committee member, and former Wilderness Committee collaborator, says, “Stanley Park has always been a local treasure, but in so many cases, it has become overused and overmanaged, instead of being left to thrive naturally. Removing trees and their tops for ‘hazard’ reasons has destroyed so much history.” After a century of heavy-handed management, Muc adds, “It’s time for us to step back and be better stewards of the forests in Stanley Park.”

Many of the western red cedars in these old-growth zones on Spratt’s map are culturally modified by Indigenous peoples, bearing marks of tool use and bark stripping from over 200 years ago. “These trees are not only part of the natural history of the area but also its cultural heritage for the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, whose people lived in what is now called Stanley Park for time immemorial. These ancient trees deserve to be left undisturbed, not altered for park management,” says Spratt.

Before and afters of recently living old-growth cedar trees cut for what can only be seen as unnecessary over-cautious tree management.

Photo by Colin Spratt

According to Spratt, the most egregious removals are old-growth trees cut down simply for growing near or over trails and appearing aged. He recently witnessed the felling of a living old-growth cedar, a beloved, photogenic tree that grew over the popular Lees Trail last summer. “For days, the side of the trail was covered in fragrant piles of fresh green cedar foliage from a tree that had stood for centuries—until human hands got in the way. The reason it was cut down? It grew over the trail and was old—the very reasons it was so special,” he says. Now, more old cedars are marked with flagging labeled ‘remove’ simply because they lean over trails.

Sprinklers set up by the Parks Board have blasted the bark off ancient cedars near trails, in some cases killing entire sides of the trees. Photo by Colin Spratt

Another example of how fragile these ancient trees are—and how extremely poorly they’re being managed—is last summer’s decision to spray Stanley Park with high-pressure sprinklers. “In the process of trying to wet Stanley Park, the delicate bark of many old-growth cedars was blasted off, killing the living cambium underneath. While well-intentioned, the sprinklers effectively pressure-washed sections of these trees bark off, causing permanent damage. Once the fragile bark of a cedar is stripped like this, that area of the tree is now dead. Anyone who knows a thing or two about trees would be horrified to see this on any tree let alone ancient cedars like these” says Colin Spratt. Spratt recommends a more careful approach: using the fire hydrants already found along park trails to naturally saturate the forest utilizing the natural water ways or adjusting sprinklers to a much lower pressure, aimed completely away from the giant trees.

Canada’s largest maple tree was struck by a fallen hemlock, cut down by hired crew. Fragments of the hemlock that fell onto the record sized tree lay scattered on the forest floor. Photo by Colin Spratt

During logging operations this year, Canada’s largest known maple tree, which grows in the park, had all the surrounding hemlocks in its small grove cut down. The lack of care around this maple became evident when a century-old hemlock, felled by the hired crew, crashed onto the record-sized tree. This incident suggests that the logging crew, the Parks Board, and Blackwell and Associates were unaware of the tree’s significance—or even that it was there—a troubling oversight given its status as Canada’s largest known maple. Now, instead of being sheltered by surrounding trees, the maple stands exposed in a clearing, increasing its vulnerability. This situation highlights the importance of leaving even dead or defoliated hemlocks in place to support natural ecological processes. The maple, located off-trail, posed no public safety risk, making its exposure both unnecessary and damaging.

Mick Bailey, also a Member of the BC Big Tree Registry who runs the popular blog BC Tree Hunter says "This is an alarming scenario! Is Blackwell targeting many of these trees as hazardous in order to profit by the exercise, or is the Parks Board simply being overzealous in terms of potential liability? I am unsure, but what's truly indisputable is that the ancient western red cedars and other trees in the park are irreplaceable, and should be forever protected from destruction. It does not seem as though there was enough constructive analysis from informed parties about how to ensure their safety. I hope that by bringing them greater publicity they can be saved."

Before and after of Canada’s largest known red alder, cut down last month likely due to the tree's advanced age for its species. It sadly was still alive when felled. Photos by Colin Spratt and Shaun Muc.

Canada’s largest known red alder was also recently cut down in Stanley Park—despite being alive at the time. This tree was prominently featured in Randy Stoltmann’s influential 1987 book, Hiking Guide to the Big Trees of B.C., where it was the first tree mentioned in Chapter One. It was also included in Amanda Lewis’s 2023 book, Tracking Giants.

Randy Stoltmann, founder of the BC Big Tree Committee, standing beside the newly limbless National Geographic tree in 1992. Stoltmann blamed the Parks Board’s "chainsaw style management" for the death of the 700-year-old tree. Photo by David Clark, The Province, 1992

Randy Stoltmann, founder of the BC Big Tree Committee and former director of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, was a famous big tree seeker, author, and leading conservationist who played a pivotal role in the fight to preserve British Columbia’s wilderness, including saving parks like Carmanah Valley. He witnessed firsthand the detrimental effects of the Vancouver Parks Board’s aggressive tree management strategies in Stanley Park. One notable example was the tragic over-pruning of the “National Geographic Tree,” a famous 700-year-old western red cedar featured in a 1978 National Geographic article and countless photographs dating back to 1888. In 1992, because of a crack in the tree, the Parks Board decided to cut off its only living branch, a very similar approach to what they are doing currently to many other ancient cedars.

Randy Stoltmann strongly disagreed with this approach, believing the tree could have been preserved through alternative measures, such as rerouting a nearby path. He took the story to the Province and saw this incident as emblematic of what he dubbed the Parks Board’s “chainsaw style of management,” treating ancient trees as mere safety hazards rather than the irreplaceable ecological treasures they are.

After the Vancouver Parks Board cut off the last living limb of the iconic “National Geographic Tree” in 1992, they didn’t just harm it—they killed it. This action, taken in the name of safety, sealed the fate of the 700-year-old cedar, creating an even bigger safety hazard than before. Yet, when the tree finally fell in 2007, a decade after it had died, this fact was conveniently ignored. Parks Board officials claimed it had died of natural causes, citing “a serious case of root rot extending into the trunk, which caused it to come down,” according to Eric Meagher, a Stanley Park maintenance supervisor. However, this narrative completely overlooks the truth: it was the cutting of its limbs in 1992 that ultimately killed the tree.

Thousands of ancient trees are still alive in the park and are at risk of being damaged if their value is not soon recognized. Photo by Colin Spratt.

In his famous 1988 book Hiking Guide to Big Trees of Southwestern British Columbia, Randy Stoltmann wrote about Stanley Park’s ancient forest, stating, “this over-emphasis on public safety is still used extensively as an excuse for park managers to ‘manage’ the forest rather than let nature take its course.”

Randy tragically died in 1994.

“Randy Stoltmann’s legacy and his contributions to the BC Big Tree Registry live on, and his careful documentation of these trees is vital to understanding what’s at stake. The ‘chainsaw management’ practices Randy criticized in the early ’90s have only intensified in recent years. We owe it to future generations, the local First Nations, the animals who live in these trees, and Randy’s legacy to protect these living monuments, learn from the past, and fight for the preservation of the ancient trees that continue to stand tall in Stanley Park. These trees are irreplaceable, and we must ensure they are not lost to shortsighted management practices,” says Colin Spratt.