By: Sofia Chassomeris, News Writer
On October 8, the Vancouver Park Board voted to proceed with their “Hemlock Looper Response and Mitigation Plan.” This comes months after a report submitted by “Canadian forestry consultant company” B.A. Blackwell & Associates Ltd. declared “over 32% of the trees in the park” have been damaged by hemlock looper moths. With phase two now underway, the City of Vancouver has already begun removing what could be 160,000 trees.
The hemlock looper moth, a native species, has been damaging and defoliating trees in Stanley Park since an outbreak was identified in 2020. The moth is named “hemlock” for the moth’s main host in western Canada — western hemlock trees. Looper outbreaks are “part of the natural forest ecosystem cycle” and “occur every 11 to 15 years.”
The Peak interviewed Michael Caditz from the Stanley Park Preservation Society (SPPS), a registered non-profit committed to protecting the park from “irreparable harm due to actions of political officials without evidence-based scientific justification.” The City of Burnaby stated that although the hemlock looper outbreak occurs “roughly every 15 years” the 2020 outbreak “resulted in significant tree mortality in the park causing an elevated risk to public safety.” Caditz stated that a majority of the hemlock trees being removed are due to Blackwell’s claim in their report that they would become hazards, but this claim is “completely speculative.” He said the Park Board is proceeding with the project “without sufficient scientific basis for their claim that they will become hazards.”
Amit Gandha, director of parks, said, “Compared to other conifer species, western hemlocks are more susceptible to disease, windthrow, and stem breakage. Add to that, several years of drought and intense winters — and the trees in Stanley Park were more vulnerable to this insect outbreak and unlikely to recover.” Conifers, also known as evergreens, are a “large group of resinous, cone-bearing trees and shrubs.” Blackwell presumes the trees will fall and even increase the risk of wildfires if they aren’t cut down. In contrast, Caditz said, “The logging operation that’s being conducted now will increase the chances of wildfire and the chances of harm being caused by trees falling.
Over the past few months, “seven highly qualified experts” have toured and assessed Stanley Park to report on its damages, according to Caditz. However, the SPPS stated “neither public consultation nor peer-reviewed opinions were obtained prior to awarding the contract and embarking on the project.”
Earlier this year, four plaintiffs, including Caditz, filed a notice of civil claim against the City of Vancouver, the Park Board, Blackwell, and Joe McLeod, manager of urban forestry with the Park Board. A civil claim is a “legal dispute between individuals, businesses, and governments.” The plaintiffs allege the city has been negligent in their decision to remove thousands of trees.
“The relief that we’re seeking [from the suit] is to order the city to only remove trees that are an imminent hazard,” Caditz told The Peak. “We would expect the city to monitor the park and to mitigate trees that were [ . . . ] properly assessed.”
Caditz said standard assessment involves using the tree risk assessor qualification (TRAQ) method to identify and report individual trees that pose immediate danger. “They claim they are using the TRAQ system, but they’re not,” he said. “They are doing forest thinning in mass. Without documentation, without assessing individual trees, they are cutting down thousands of trees with no verification that the trees they’re cutting are immediate hazards.
“The overwhelming consensus [is] this logging operation is making matters much worse and much more dangerous than the looper.”
The SPPS is collecting signatures for a petition to stop the logging immediately.
The Peak reached out to Blackwell for comment but did not receive a response by the publication deadline.
