600-year-old tree falls in Stanley Park

A cedar tree that’s over 600 years old has fallen in Vancouver’s Stanley Park. One local tree tour guide says he’s worried about how these trees will survive summer droughts like this one in future years.

“It’s between the ages of 600 to 900 years old … absolutely massive, well over three metres wide,” said Colin Spratt with Ancient Trees of Vancouver.

The tree is located down a trail off of Third Beach and had been there since before Europeans first landed in the area.

A cedar tree that’s over 600 years old has fallen in Vancouver’s Stanley Park. One local tree tour guide says he’s worried about how these trees will survive summer droughts like this one in future years. (Angela Bower, CityNews Image)

Spratt says he spotted the fallen tree on one of his tours on Saturday and explains that it most likely fell because of “heart rot,” which eats away at the centre of the tree’s trunk. Spratt tells CityNews that he’s worried about how other trees in Stanley Park will fare as high temperatures continue and likely rise throughout the summer.

“This tree is indicative of what is happening to Western Red Cedars in the warmest parts of the province,” he said.

“Sadly I think this going to be an increasing trend and this is an example that we are losing some of our biggest trees in the province due to the changing climate.”

“It died from natural causes, but we have been going through drought summers and we are going through an insect outbreak of Hemlock Loopers,” he explained. “There are a lot of stressors in the tree.

Spratt adds the ancient tree had been in a state of advanced decay, meaning it was dead for at least a few years, but remained standing mostly because of its sheer size and strength.

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Professor John Richardson at the University of British Columbia says, during a drought, trees become extremely vulnerable.

“For an ancient cedar tree, that kind of stress and trying to get water to its roots — some of the branches and roots start to die and then it doesn’t take very much for a tree to fall over,” he said.

In a statement to CityNews, the Vancouver Park Board says, in part, staff water some trees in Stanley Park and “… this work is being done through the lens of wildfire risk mitigation, as opposed to targeting trees by age … high attention is paid to young trees within their first 1-2 years of growth as these need more support in becoming established.”

Spratt says long dry spells are hurting trees in B.C., adding that he thinks human help may be the only solution.

“It is a funny concept watering an 800-year-old plant.”

“Last summer it didn’t rain between September and October. Summer got extended so — if that happens again — I don’t think it is out of the question that we should water some of these trees.”

Spratt says it’s a shame to see such a big and beautiful tree fall, but good things will come out of it, as he tells CityNews that more trees will germinate on it over the next decade — continuing to breathe more life into Stanley Park.