The consulting company that recommended the removal of thousands of trees from Stanley Park is sharing its perspective on a project that’s spurred considerable local controversy.
The Vancouver Park Board began removing trees from the park after it revealed in November 2023 that up to 160,000 of them had been killed by a hemlock looper moth infestation and had become unsafe.
The report that led to the removal was authored by B.A. Blackwell and Associates, which also worked to restore the Stanley Park forest after a damaging windstorm in 2006.
“I felt this was an opportunity to provide an education moment because there’s a lot to learn about this issue, it’s complicated,” Bruce Blackwell, the company’s principal, told Global News during a tour of the affected areas of the park on Thursday.
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Blackwell was emphatic that the only purpose of the tree removal in the park is public safety.
On …