June 5th, 2014 — Until a few months ago residents of Vancouver could remove one tree a year from their property. City council then passed a bylaw saying no tree can be cut without it being certified by an arborist as dead and then the tree has to be replaced with something similar.
All this came about because satellite mapping technology showed that the tree canopy in Vancouver had decreased significantly in the last 10 years. The blame for the decrease was put onto homeowners who were renovating or rebuilding on city lots and removing trees so they could build a bigger house. Vancouverites, however, love their trees and no one really complained about the new bylaw. I didn’t but I’m thinking maybe I should after driving by this development on Marine Way near Boundary Road. Twenty acres of trees gone for a housing development. There’s a sign saying they’ll plant a lot of trees as the development progresses but after 15,000 people are crammed into the area (this number from a sign on the property) how much room will be left?
So who caused the reduction in the tree canopy in Vancouver; homeowners or developers? Developments like this are not common in the city because most of the land already has housing on it but there was a similar situation at the University of British Columbia a few years ago where thousands of mature cedar, hemlock, and fir trees were cut for a condo development. They had a portable saw mill on site to handle the volume. You can see pictures of the UBC logging operation HERE.
Below is a picture from Google Maps showing what the area above looked like a few months ago and had looked like for at least the last 30 years.
