We now know how many trees are being cut down in Vancouver Stanley Park In the city’s battle against the hemlock looper moth.
In a notice to park stakeholders obtained by Global News, the Vancouver Park Board said “essential tree work” at the park has been completed.
The notice stated that between October and March 2023, the contractor removed or treated 7,201 trees in 60 hectares (25%) of the park's forest area.
Crews also completed reforestation work, which included the planting of more than 25,000 seedlings of multiple tree species to ensure a more resilient forest in the future.
The park board insisted the trees had to be removed because they were dead or endangered by an infestation of hemlock moths, an insect endemic to the area that occurs in outbreaks about every 15 years, and because they posed a safety and fire risk.
It is unclear why the update was only sent to members of the mailing list and not released to the public.
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The park board said no one was willing to be interviewed for this story.
Michael Cadiz, who spearheaded a petition against the tree removal, now serves as a director of the Stanley Park Conservancy.
Surprisingly, he said, the city seemed to limit with whom it shared updates on the project.
“Something of this magnitude, with such a huge impact not only on the ecology of the park but also on the stakeholders, the users of the park … should be done in the open,” he said.
“The City of Vancouver’s Vancouver Parks Board continues to operate in secrecy.”
Cadiz believes it is unnecessary for the city to cut down the trees, and said his group has not found any experts who agree with the move recommended by the consultant report's authors.
He said the same report also found more than 166,000 dead trees and said at least 20,000 of them would be removed.
“If you look at those numbers and compare them to the 7,000 they say they've cut, they're just getting started,” he said.
“It sounds like they’re going to recover, and what we’re seeing right now is just the tip of the iceberg.”
Cadiz said his organization intends to fight any future tree removal in court and hopes to obtain an injunction blocking the work.
“We want to stop this,” he said. “We as a society will do everything we can to stop the resumption of logging.”
According to the latest news from the park board, most of the cut wood is being reused.
It is said that nearly 3,000 cubic meters of logs have been mined and recycled, of which about 4% was given to local Aboriginal people.
The city also provided six loads of firewood to local First Nations for longhouse construction and ceremonial purposes, while a seventh load went to Vancouver Police for their Land Culture Training Program.
Crews also removed more than 2,100 tonnes of brush and fine fuels and shredded them into green waste.
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