Final phase of Stanley Park logging approved, and a legal challenge kicks back into gear

The park board unanimously approved the third and final round of tree removals in Stanley Park, which will be focused near trails in the interior of the park, including along Lees Trail, Lovers Walk, Tatlow Walk, and around Beaver Lake. 

The tree removals – which are being done for public safety after thousands of trees were compromised by a multi-year Hemlock looper insect outbreak – have drawn significant public opposition, including lawsuits by the Stanley Park Preservation Society (SPPS). 

Just over 11,000 trees have been removed so far, while over 54,000 new seedlings have been planted, according to the park board. 

The third phase of work, expected to begin late this year and finish in early 2027, will be done within a 40-metre area of trails, meaning portions of the park’s interior forests will be left untreated. 

B.A. Blackwell, the forestry company acting as both the park board’s consultant and the contractor for all the looper-related tree removal work in the park to date, won the contract after being the only company to submit a bid. Blackwell was also the only bidder for Phase 2 work, and was awarded the Phase 1 contract after preparing the initial report that found the looper outbreak had impacted some 160,000 trees in Stanley Park. 

“There may be a general understanding [in the industry] that somebody who has all of that on-the-ground knowledge perhaps has a competitive advantage. I think that’s probably one of the big reasons that we saw only a single bidder,” Joe McLeod, the park board’s urban forestry manager noted. 

Comm. Angela Haer pointed to Blackwell’s dual role as consultant and head contractor as a conflict of interest and sought to have the bid process reopened to allow other companies to apply for the contract.

However, that was ruled out of order by staff, “Because that work has already been done [and] there’s already been a competitive process performed,” park board clerk Jessica Kulchyski told Haer.

Blackwell recommended the park board approve a work plan with a 75-metre buffer zone, covering almost double the area of the 40-metre option.  

However, park board staff recommended and commissioners approved the smaller project area as a balance between maintaining public safety, keeping costs down, and retaining dead trees as nesting areas for birds and other wildlife. 

“We felt that [40 metres] was far enough away from any busy area that we could leave a dead tree standing,” park board commissioner Tom Digby told Vancity Lookout. 

“There's a great deal of ecological value in dead trees standing and falling, logs being lying on the ground… birds, woodpeckers, bugs, insects, all kinds of species need dead trees to thrive in,” Digby said, adding that leaving more fuel for a potential fire or the unlikely, though possible, event of a tall tree falling onto a path was acceptable given those ecological benefits. 

The park board’s urban forestry department has final say over any work or assessments being proposed or submitted by Blackwell or its sub-contractors. 

Michael Robert Caditz, a lead member of SPPS, who filed a judicial review against the city and park board for their handling of the tree removals, told Vancity Lookout that the society’s members were happy that the park board chose the 40-metre buffer option. 

The significant reduction in operational area for phase three (about 57 hectares compared to about 90 hectares with the 75 metre option) was good, however, it’s still not acceptable, Caditz said. 

Caditz said SPPS is asking that before any tree is cut down, it should be individually assessed – something that hasn’t and isn’t being done under the assessment system used by the city and its contractors for the looper moth work – and only be felled if the tree is imminently dangerous. 

Stanley Park Preservation Society still has its judicial review against the city pending, with Caditz telling Vancity Lookout they had agreed to adjourn the case until after this meeting. Now, Caditz is alleging that park board commissioners and staff made several procedural errors in Monday’s meeting, which SPPS will include in updated court submissions. 

Caditz anticipates the judicial review hearing, which he hopes will quash the board’s recently approved plan, will now be scheduled within the next two months. 

Further, Caditz said they have an agreement with the city that logging will not resume until after a court decision. 

As a legal matter before the board and the subject of private in-camera park board discussions, Comm. Digby could not confirm or deny any details about the pending case, however, he did explain that there’s enough time for a hearing to go ahead before logging could resume in mid-October. 

“The plan is clear, and anyone who wants to challenge it [through the courts] would certainly have time,” if they act quickly, Digby said. 

As part of the motion, Digby attempted to bring an amendment that would have formed a public listening and discussion process between commissioners and Vancouver residents around public concerns about the park board’s urban forestry plan, including the long-term management of Stanley Park. 

Digby pointed to the ongoing litigation with SPPS as something that’s limited commissioners’ ability to have public conversations outside of board meetings about the tree removals in Stanley Park, and Digby said he wanted to have more of those conversations, with the help of park board staff “at an appropriate time in the future.” 

No other commissioner was willing to support Digby’s amendment, meaning it did not move forward. 

“None of my colleagues at the park board want to engage in public discussion,” Digby told Vancity Lookout, saying he was disappointed in the lack of support from his colleagues.