Up to one-quarter of trees in Stanley Park could be removed [Video]

Work to cut down approximately one-quarter of the trees in Vancouver’s Stanley Park is facing growing opposition from advocates who say the city’s plan is doing more harm than good.

The Vancouver Park Board began cutting down an estimated 160,000 trees killed by an ongoing western hemlock looper moth infestation last summer, and says the plan will help limit “imminent” fire and public safety risks in the four-square-kilometre park.

Drought and the moth infestation have weakened the trees’ root systems and left them dry, making them more easy to set alight or tip over onto paths and power lines, according to Joe McLeod, the park board’s director of urban forestry.

Most of the trees being removed are young western hemlocks less than eight inches in diameter, he said, and many other varieties of trees are being planted in their place.

“Where there’s dead trees, typically they will fall over time and then that results in a higher likelihood …