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Here Lies Stanley Park

She died of windstroke. Bereaved officials can't be surprised.

Bob Exell 15 Jan 2007TheTyee.ca

Journalist Bob Exell has completed a map guide to Stanley Park and its seawall, due out in the spring. He is a former consultant to the Council of Forest Industries and a former assistant deputy minister, Intergovernmental Affairs, in the B.C. provincial government.

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When Park was a baby. Prospect Point in 1891.

Stanley Park, 117, died suddenly of windstroke Friday, Dec. 15, 2006, after years of suffering and decline from the ravages of forest degeneration.

News of Stanley Park's passing was greeted with shock and disbelief, although symptoms of her illness had been evident for more than 60 years.

Much loved by everyone who came to knew her, few were aware of the background of Stanley Park's birth and upbringing.

She was born Oct. 29, 1889, offspring of Sir Frederick Arthur Stanley, 1st Baron of Preston, 16th Earl of Derby. At the time of her birth, Lord Stanley was Governor General of Canada.

At her baptism, Lord Stanley predicted a long life and a wonderful future for Stanley Park, declaring that she was for "the use and enjoyment of peoples of all colours, creeds and customs for all time."

Warning signs

Throughout her life, Stanley Park was a ward of the Government of Canada, which placed her in the care of the City of Vancouver and its park board. The question as to whether or not the quality of their care contributed to her long decline and eventual death is expected to be a focus of the forthcoming inquest.

Certainly, evidence will be presented to show that serious concerns were first raised about Stanley Park's forest degeneration in the 1940s. Then, the planting of conifers was begun to replace the loss of old-growth trees. The program was said, however, to have been limited in its scope.

A more ambitious effort reportedly was made in 1980 when the Vancouver park board hired a forestry consultant to develop a forest maintenance program. Stanley Park had suffered her first windstroke a full 18 years earlier at the hands of Typhoon Frieda. She would, at last, get the attention she deserved.

Regretfully, the consultant's report was never fully implemented, the inquest is likely to be told.

Hopes for Stanley Park's return to health again arose in 1985 when a master plan was drafted calling for the immediate undertaking of a comprehensive forest management program.

MacBlo's offer

Even so, it was not until 1987 was drawing to a close that help seemed finally at hand. British Columbia's forest industry giant, MacMillan Bloedel, employer of many of the province's leading forest professionals, had offered its assistance. MB and the park board announced that MB would contribute $1,500,000 towards the estimated $3,000,000 cost of a forest regeneration program. It would take 10 years to be fully implemented.

Thus, beginning in 1988, an MB forest inventory crew undertook a comprehensive timber cruise of Stanley Park to assess its forest regeneration needs. While preparing an extensive database and detailed map of Stanley Park's forest cover, they discovered not only evidence of her wounds, but also evidence of her charms.

There was, for instance, the curious "four-in-one tree" -- the name they gave to something the foresters had never before encountered: four species -- Douglas fir, western hemlock, western red cedar and Sitka spruce -- growing from the same germination point.

There was evidence of "test holes" in old-growth trees. Foresters speculated that the holes were made by 19th century loggers (the area had been selectively logged, or "high-graded," from 1860 through the 1880s) or by native Indians. Trees that were rotten to the core because of disease would be of little value to loggers but of great value to Indians seeking candidates for dug-out canoes.

But there were worrisome symptoms of decline. The most serious problem was parasitic dwarf mistletoe, affecting the hemlock in particular. The extent of it was said to be much greater than in most of B.C.'s coastal forests.

The plan developed by MB would, in brief, rehabilitate Stanley Park's coniferous forest cover and reduce the size of deciduous growth. Healthy, young trees would replace old-growth trees as the latter were gradually lost to natural causes -- insects, disease and windthrow such as that experienced during typhoon Frieda in 1962.

'Truncus complecti'

During a windstorm, it was not just the disease-weakened trees that were at risk. When they came down, they could take healthy trees down with them.

MB's forest regeneration plan was designed with that in mind, calling for the removal of diseased and hazardous trees and for various silvicultural treatments -- deciduous tree removal, thinning, brushing, pruning, fertilization and the planting of 28,000 seedlings. Using two-year-old coniferous trees from MB's nursery, the planting would emphasize western red cedar. MB professionals would monitor progress over the program's 10-year term.

But as with past plans, it fell by the wayside. The Vancouver park board chose not to proceed with it. Why? Apparently for political reasons, bowing to local truncus complecti (tree huggers) who believed the park should remain untouched by human hands, especially those of a giant corporation like MacMillan Bloedel, at the time so often accused of raping and pillaging the forests.

Even so, the board is said to have asked MacMillan Bloedel to send along the promised $1,500,000 contribution. The board would use it for other purposes. MB refused. (MacMillan Bloedel no longer exists in its own right, having been taken over by Weyerhaeuser in 1999.)

Pass the basket

It is likely, too, evidence at the inquest will show that, as Stanley Park's forest health continued its decline, the park board's attitude towards regeneration remained unchanged. Its capital budget for forest renewal from 2000 to 2005 was reported to be $250,000. Of that amount, just $84,000 was expended. The budget 2006 to 2008 was $200,000, or one-fifth of the amount earmarked for park road resurfacing.

No doubt the question to be put before the jurors will be whether or not the cumulative evidence constituted ongoing neglect.

If neglect, was it wilful or benign?

As so frequently happens, violent death attracts the morbidly curious -- in this case, the mayor of Vancouver, Sam Sullivan; the premier of British Columbia, Gordon Campbell; and the federal minister of the environment, John Baird. While none made a personal pledge of assistance, it was of great comfort to the bereaved that all three spoke of generous contributions of taxpayers' money.

In that spirit, grieving politicians are urging mourners to send donations in lieu of flowers. At a later date plans will be announced for an indefinite viewing, to take place at her childhood home, Burrard Inlet, where she brought joy to millions.

CBC News Photo Gallery of Stanley Park storm damage

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