Expect weekend delays as Stanley Park tree removals bring lane closures through December: ministry
Stanley Park Causeway down 1 lane Dec. 3, 10, 16 and 17
UPDATE: As of Dec. 15, the Vancouver Park Board says the Stanley Park Causeway and Lions Gate Bridge will not be fully closed on Dec. 17. Instead a single lane on the causeway will be closed from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The Stanley Park Causeway will be down to one lane in each direction most of Sunday as the Vancouver Park Board works on an "urgent" effort to remove thousands of dead and damaged trees throughout the iconic park.
Drivers should expect delays along the key Downtown-North Shore corridor as one of its three lanes will be closed from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Dec. 3, as well as on Sunday, Dec. 10 and Saturday, Dec. 16, according to the B.C. transport ministry.
Northbound pedestrians and cyclists will be detoured west through Stanley Park during those times, the ministry said in a Friday statement.
The road and the Lions Gate Bridge will also be completely closed to drivers, cyclists and pedestrians from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 17, with drivers asked to take the Ironworkers Memorial bridge instead.
"While efforts are being made to keep impacts to a minimum, people should plan for delays and transit changes to and from the North Shore," said the ministry's statement.
'Part of nature'
The temporary road closures come at the start of a multi-year project to remove about one quarter of all trees in Stanley Park's forests. On Friday, chainsaws were already splintering the usual quiet in what's considered a gem of Vancouver.
The Park Board and experts say the trees being removed — dead or damaged by drought and a years-long western hemlock looper moth infestation — have weakened branches and root systems, increasing the risk they will fall on people, power lines and roads, or act as kindling in a potential wildfire.
"That's just part of nature," Babita Bains, a provincial forest health officer with the office of the chief forester, told CBC News.
"Once these trees die, they start to degrade and they can pose a human safety risk," said Bains, who was speaking generally and not about Stanley Park in particular.
About 160,000 trees are expected to be felled in Stanley Park, according to the Park Board.
"Removing trees is not something we take lightly, but this work is essential to restarting the forest afresh and giving it the strongest chance at withstanding future threats to its health," Amit Gandha, director of parks at the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, said in a statement.
The board said areas where trees have been lost will be replanted with tens of thousands of native species, including Douglas fir, western red cedar, grand fir, big leaf maple and red alder, with the long-term goal to "reset the ecology" of Stanley Park.
City spokeswoman Eva Cook said in a statement that 140,000 of the trees to be chopped are less than 20 centimetres in diameter and the vast majority are hemlock — the moth's preferred food source.
"These are younger trees that are dead and brown, and will contribute to wildfire surface fuel if left in place," Cook said.
"The remaining 20,000 dead trees are larger than 20 cm in diameter and must be removed in support of public safety and to protect infrastructure in and around Stanley Park."
No one from the city or park board was available for an interview.
Forests 'aren't static'
While the plan may be temporarily disruptive, the Park Board is trying to balance three delicate key considerations at a critical time of year, said John Richardson, a professor of forestry and conservation science at the University of British Columbia.
"One is the public safety concern, one is the appearance to people using the park, and the third is the forest health itself," he told CBC News.
The infestation of juvenile looper moths, a member of the inchworm family, is essentially over because they have largely eliminated the needles they feed on, said Allan Carroll, director of the forest sciences program at the University of British Columbia.
"If the trees lose all their needles, they can't regrow them, and they die," he said.
The dead and damaged trees leftover are eyesores, but they also make it harder for forests to recover, taking up space where healthy trees could be and creating shade that limits growth of essential mosses and smaller plants, said Richardson.
And while wildfire season may seem a ways away, he says cooler months put the park "right in the line of fire for wind storms" coming in from the Salish Sea and Burrard Inlet.
"The winter … is actually the windiest time of the year. And so with all these dead trees there, there is an increased risk that the trees can blow down," said Richardson.
Caroll and Richardson say while the changes may be alarming to some, even natural forests "aren't static."
"I think it's a useful thing to be thinking about cleaning up forests and removing some of the potential fire hazards, public safety hazards and allow some of the forest understory to regenerate," said Richardson.
With files from the Canadian Press and Yasmin Gandham