An NPA candidate for the Vancouver park board says that if he were on the board, he would not have voted in favour of cutting down 70 trees in Queen Elizabeth Park based on the information provided in a recent staff report. Christopher Richardson, who was a Non-Partisan Association commissioner from 1999 to 2002, told the Georgia Straight after the July 7 board meeting that he would have asked staff to identify every targeted tree.

“It’s a slippery slope when you start cutting for views,” Richardson said. “Given the information in the staff report, I would have asked that each and every tree be tagged and numbered, and then I would have asked my fellow commissioners, and the public if they wished…to look at each and every decision.”

At the meeting, which took place at Killarney Community Centre, the board voted 4–2 in favour of a staff recommendation to remove 70 trees ranging in height from six to 18 metres. NPA commissioners Heather Holden, Ian Robertson, Marty Zlotnik, and chair Korina Houghton supported the staff plan to open up two views of downtown and the West End and create a third view of the city to the northwest. Independent commissioner Allan De Genova and COPE commissioner Loretta Woodcock voted against the staff recommendation, which also calls for twice as many trees to be planted as are cut down.

Some of the speakers at the meeting shouted “Shame, shame” after the commissioners voted. Riley Park resident Ned Jacobs, who works in Queen Elizabeth Park, had earlier in the meeting described the plan as “deplorable” because it didn’t provide other options to the board, and because he didn’t feel there was “timely or adequate notice for the single open house”.

“Most deplorable of all is the intentional avoidance of the implications of the magnificent cedar grove that presently obstructs—and will continue to overgrow—major portions of these view corridors,” Jacobs told the commissioners.

In a written analysis of the Queen Elizabeth Park tree-management plan, Jacobs noted that the plan would leave intact “stately red cedars and other conifers” that block views of the West End and the central business district. Some ponderosa pines often used for nesting by Cooper’s hawks will be destroyed, as well as a grove of Colorado blue spruces, Pacific dogwoods, two rare jack pines, a bigleaf maple, and two chestnut trees. His report questioned the need to remove trees on the upper slopes when views will be “largely lost over the next few decades” because of the growth of cedar trees and conifers on the lower slopes.

The NPA’s Robertson said that residents rejected a viewing tower in the park in an earlier consultation process but still expressed a desire to restore views. “I think our job as commissioners, obviously, is to protect and respect the green space that we have, but it is at times to make the difficult decisions for the overall balance and management of the park,” Robertson said. COPE’s Woodcock, however, said she thought it was “appalling” to preserve views without minimizing the impact on trees. The NPA commissioners voted down her amendment to preserve only one viewpoint, which would have resulted in the removal of 10 trees rather than 70.

Speaking as a member of the public, former NPA park-board chair and landscape architect Art Cowie told the commissioners before the vote that he supported the staff’s plan, saying it took courage to bring it forward. Another speaker, Vancouver resident Joe MacEachern, noted that the park board was not identified as a principal stakeholder in the tree-management plan, even though it collects approximately $210,000 per year in revenue from the leaseholder of Seasons in the Park restaurant. MacEachern claimed that cutting down trees will improve the views from the restaurant, which will lead to greater profitability and more money flowing back to the park board. He said that this point should have been disclosed to the public.