Bob Mackin
Four citizens with Save Stanley Park are hoping a judge will halt the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation from cutting down any more trees in Stanley Park.
In a negligence lawsuit filed July 11 in B.C. Supreme Court, software developer Michael Robert Cadiz and homemaker Katherine Caditz, holistic health educator and coach Anita Hansen and schoolteacher Jillian Maguire named City of Vancouver, the Park Board, urban forestry manager Joe McLeod and contractor B.A. Blackwell and Associates as defendants.
Stanley Park entrance on West Georgia (Mackin)
Between October and March, crews logged more than 7,200 trees in Stanley Park, a fraction of the 160,000 that the Park Board said would be removed due to the Hemlock looper moth infestation and wildfire fears. The Park Board is spending almost $7 million on the operation.
“If defendants continue the logging operation to its stated conclusion, then almost one third of the trees in Stanley Park will be cut down,” said the court filing. “Many healthy trees, including red cedar and Douglas fir trees, have already been cut down, including a 150-year-old fir. Further, much of the logging is implemented as patch cutting, which results in cutting healthy trees which happen to be situated in the patch, but leaving defoliated trees which happen to be situated outside of the patch.”
The plaintiffs claim the tree removal operation has resulted in muddy trails, previously secluded or shaded areas being subject to sunlight and heat and increased traffic noise and exposure to roadways. Also, the sights and sounds of heavy machinery that emit diesel exhaust.
The result, the four plaintiffs claim, is that the logging has harmed their mental health and caused physical discomfort.
Top city hall bureaucrats approved the first phase last August behind closed doors and recommended the emergency, no-bid contract with North Vancouver’s Blackwell while city council and park board politicians were on summer holiday.
The lack of public debate is a major issue in the lawsuit. The plaintiffs say there was never a motion at a public Park Board meeting to direct staff to remove trees from Stanley Park nor was there a motion approve any contract with Blackwell to hire logging subcontractors.
Crews load logged Stanley Park trees at a makeshift yard in the Prospect Point Picnic Area (Bob Mackin photo)
By comparison, the Park Board, dominated by Mayor Ken Sim’s ABC party until last December, decided at open meetings to repair the storm-damaged Jericho Beach Park Pier, explore new revenue generating activities, lift the moratorium on commercial event applications and remove the Stanley Park Drive bike lane and return it to pre-pandemic condition.
“Plaintiffs find no evidence in the Park Board meeting summaries and minutes from January 2021 through July 2024 that a motion was presented or approved by resolution at a public (or any) meeting,” the court filing says. “Had such public hearing transpired, then experts with alternate recommendations and any conflicting scientific evidence would have had an opportunity to be heard.”
They also claim the contractor is in conflict of interest. Blackwell was the consultant that assessed the looper moth impact and became the general contractor of the mitigation work it eventually recommended, thus standing to profit from a markup on the logging operation.
None of the allegations has been tested in court. The defendants have yet to file their replies.
The Park Board said planting of 25,000 seedlings took place in March and April, including western red cedar, Douglas fir, grand fir, Sitka spruce and red alder. Removal of logs felled across six hectares was deferred to fall 2024, which also delays replanting in those areas.
Park Board general manager Steve Jackson’s internal memo said crews will continue to deal with hazard trees during the summer months and the city was considering bids on the next phase of work.
“The scope will address priority treatments in forest areas at the Aquarium, Brockton Point, Chickadee Trail, and a portion of the seawall west of Lion’s Gate Bridge,” the memo said.
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