We took this picture yesterday on Chickadee Trail. This lush green trail with chickadees chirping merrily away is on the chopping block next and logging could start any minute, so we need people in the park looking for equipment being moved in. If you want to help out by spending time riding or waking around the trails of the park and sharing any nefarious activity, join our Signal group (Signal is an encrypted messaging app) – click here for the link.

We’ll make a schedule. This is an EMERGENCY, so we need people on this now. We’ll have more instructions once we are in Signal together. If you don’t have access to Signal or you can’t get into the group, email us at katherine@savestanleypark.ca and we will set you up.

If you are around this weekend what better way to spend Sunday morning than in the park getting a tour of Chickadee Trail with arborist Norm Oberson? Come see what the treecutters are chomping at the bit to chop down – and what we are desperate to save. We’ll meet at the concrete bridge at the west side of lost lagoon at 10 am and. head to Chickadee. It’d be great to get a big crowd, meet each other face to face and talk next steps.

Ok, now to what happened earlier this week. The “independent elected park board” heard expert after expert recommend rejecting the phase 2 Stanley Park logging plan. Ecologists, forest health experts, fire modeling experts, and arborists alike reported that the logging is INCREASING, not decreasing, both fire and windfall risk. And after hearing from people with doctorate degrees in their respective disciplines, the park board commissioners vote 6-1 to continue logging our park. Angela Haer was the only dissenting voice. She asked good questions and obviously made an evidence-based decision.

Here's one nugget for you. Arborist Joey Zhang explained TRAQ, the method used in the Blackwell report to pronounce 160,000 trees “dead” and recommend extensive removal. Joey eloquently explained that each tree that has been identified for removal, after a thorough examination, has the data that led to this determination recorded on a TRAQ form. He noted that there were no TRAQ forms for any of the "treatment areas" to be found anywhere. Commissioner Brennan Bastyovansky asked Associate Director of Urban Parks Joe McLeod a follow-up question about where the TRAQ forms were. McLeod explained that there are different “methods” used in TRAQ. He reported that the trees were identified for removal after a level one assessment, which does not require a form. I asked arborist Norm Oberson about these levels. I’ll try to explain it, but I’m a layperson just learning this stuff, so my apologies if I make an error.

TRAQ is a 3-level process. A level one assessment is a walk-by, a cursory look at the trees. Arborist make notes about any trees that show some signs of weakness – sloughing bark, dead leaves, scars etc. Any trees identified then go to level 2, which involves things like tapping the trunk to see if it sounds hollow. Hollow-sounding trees would then be identified for a level 3 assessment, which involves arborist assessment tools. I asked if one would ever proceed straight to removal after a level 1 assessment. Norm said in a very rare case, if a tree was leaning at 30 degrees or more and was an imminent risk, then he might order a removal based on that. However, there would be an infinitesimally small chance that a level one assessment would identify thousands of trees for immediate removal. 

Imagine our surprise when, in an interview the day after the meeting, Brennan Bastyovansky, the guy who asked Joe McLeod the question and listened intently to the answer, reported to the media that all trees will be individually assessed. His math is way off too. Click here to watch this interview and decide for yourself.

If you want to see the clip of Joey, Bastyovansky and McLeod – here’s the park board meeting here. Joey comes on at 1:11. It’s fascinating and worth a few minutes of your afternoon. If you want to make a big bowl of popcorn and settle down for the night, you could watch the whole thing. This is just day 2 of the parade of experts! 

And before you go, please consider donating to our legal fund. We are still embroiled in our lawsuit and applying for another injunction, so the pile of bills just keeps getting bigger. Click here to get to our donation page. Alternatively, you can e-transfer a donation to donate@savestanleypark.ca or mail a cheque made out to Stanley Park Preservation Society to SPPS, 2506-455 Beach Crescent, Vancouver, BC V6Z 3E5.  

If the link to our chuffed account doesn't work, copy and paste this link in your browser. https://chuffed.org/project/savestanleypark

Let’s save some trees!!!