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It's out with 70 tall trees and in with the views from Queen Elizabeth Park after Monday night's parks board meeting. NPA parks board commissioners voted to axe the trees to restore the views from three lookouts on the north side of the park.
Fifty-year old pine, spruce and red cedar trees will be removed from the large quarry, Bloedel Conservatory Plaza and Anniversary Garden lookouts to restore lost views.
COPE parks board commissioner Loretta Woodcock suggested restricting the removal of trees to the Anniversary Garden area near the brass statues and the park's restaurant. Independent parks board commissioner and Vision Vancouver member Allan De Genova supported her proposal. But NPA commissioners Ian Robertson, Heather Holden, Marty Zlotnik and parks board chair Korina Houghton backed the staff plan to remove trees impeding views from all three spots.
Woodcock said the split in public opinion on the tree management plan convinced her the solution wouldn't fall completely on one side or the other. The parks board received 81 letters, phone calls and response forms opposed to the plan with 76 in support of it and 18 undecided.
Of the 500 Lower Mainland residents contacted in a June telephone survey, 259 supported the plan, 96 opposed it and 145 were undecided.
Woodcock says she walked around the park with various groups, including parks board staff, for six hours to scout out a compromise. She believes restoring views to Howe Sound and the city from the Anniversary Garden would satisfy priorities laid out by the board in 1999. After a six-month consultation with 800 people, the board called for preserving the view with a limited impact on trees.
Monday night's meeting at the Killarney Community Centre was packed. Most of the two dozen speakers argued against removing the trees.
Norm Dooley had hoped for a compromise. "We're disappointed because we thought that there were alternatives to cutting the trees that would have provided views," the longtime area resident said. "And that this basically was an extreme action on the part of the majority of the board."
Trees ranging from six to 18 metres tall trees will be cut to restore views from three spots and lateral branches of eight or more trees will be pruned. Pruning all of the trees wasn't favoured because this can make the trees structurally weaker and more susceptible to breakage by snow and wind, says the plan, penned by Alex Downie, supervisor of Queen Elizabeth Park and Bloedel Conservatory. Pruning would need to be repeated frequently to keep the trees at the desired height.
Houghton acknowledged public opinion about the tree management plan was mixed but she says the plan is "balanced."
"Really we're talking about one per cent of the trees, less than one per cent of the tree cover there," she said. "It's actually a fairly sensitive plan and all it's going to do is give us a view of the mountains and the city and we'll still have lots of trees in the park."
Sensitive isn't a term Woodcock would use.
"I think this board has contempt for public opinion," she said. "Because they only addressed the opinion of one group of the public and not the other."
Woodcock said while the parks board won't disturb trees with bird nests in them until nesting season ends, the tree management plan failed to seriously consider the foraging and habitat needs of the 80 species of birds that frequent the 50 year-old trees.
Each tree removed will be replaced by two new planted trees. Parks staff estimate one-third of the trees removed from viewing areas can be replaced with trees, including cherry, dogwood, magnolia and mountain ash, that grow no more than five to 10 metres in height. Taller coniferous trees are proposed for groves on the south side of the park.
The trees will come down this summer and their replacements planted over the fall and winter.
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