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An obituary for a Vancouver city hall tree

August 29th, 2014 · 17 Comments

And now for a break from politics (though I expect some people will find a way to work it in even here):

I noticed a while ago that one of the two big cedars in front of Vancouver city hall on the south side had turned completely brown. When I happened to ask about it earlier this week, I found out it was going to be taken down Wednesday.

Here’s my little story on the interesting history behind this cedar (a Port Orford cedar originally from the south Oregon/north California region) and many others like in Vancouver, thanks to Douglas Justice at the UBC Botanical Garden.

For a view of it when it was young, here’s a picture from 1937 and another taken once the cedars had grown quite a bit.

 

Categories: Uncategorized

  • Silly Season

    I blame the carbon emissions coming from inside City Hall!

    You’re welcome. 😉

  • Silly Season

    PS Frances, there is a logical follow-up q to this article, for all pols and wannabe pols running in our next civic elxn, a la Baba Wawa…

    “If you could be a tree, what kind of tree would you be?’

  • F.H.Leghorn

    Obvious plug for the Cedar Party, though the rotting and cuttin-down parts aren’t the images I would have chosen.
    Prediction: Photo-op of Mayor planting the replacement. Let’s hope it’s a money tree.

  • Bill Lee

    Ah, Port Orford Cedar. Nice smell and very good for arrows.
    I presume that the wood was spoken for and cut into appropriate sizes.
    “A number of years ago there was very little choice in shaft materials for constructing wood arrows, Port Orford Cedar (POC) was king. It was a good choice for consistent, straight arrows and, of course, the best part of the arrow was the aroma. You didn’t seem to mind as much when you broke one because you got the added benefit of enjoying the aromatic cedar. ”

    But there is a dramatic shortage of Port Orford Cedar, so alternatives are being used.

    There is a lot of cutting down on the central lKing Edward Boulevard toward the Arbutus end.

    And all the ornamental Cherry trees must be replaced. And Oak trees have had their city life though rash city pruning has meant that they are more like telephone poles (whose value meant that a line of trees was decimated for pole locations on some streets, along with the ill-considered plan for non-street-corner city lamp poles)

    http://www.pacifichorticulture.org/articles/the-untimely-demise-of-the-lawson-cypress/
    The Untimely Demise of the Lawson Cypress
    By: Douglas Justice [2300 words]
    (Pacific Horticulture Issue: October 2002 )

    [Douglas Justice is associate director and curator of collections at UBC Botanical Garden in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he indulges his passion for maples and other trees. He teaches and writes on a variety of plant related topics, and is actively involved with local, national, and international botanical and horticulture organizations.]

    PHOTO Lawson cypress (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana). Photograph courtesy of the Helen Crocker Russell Library

    ….Chamaecyparis lawsoniana is one of the most important conifers in ornamental horticulture. Lawson cypress or Port Orford cedar, as it is known in its native range and by foresters, is restricted in nature to a narrow strip of the Oregon-California coast and to the mountains of northern California. It was once an important timber tree for the region. Old growth stands were scattered in small groves, the trees potentially growing for 500 years and reaching a height of around 220 feet (70 meters).

  • wet coaster

    News Flash:

    Cedar Party changes name to Cypress Party, saying that they’re survivors and will give City Hall a fresh, new and transparent image.

  • Richard

    @wet coaster

    Yew’ve got to be kiddin’ me!

  • Julia

    all trees die – that is what happens to them. While it is a sad loss it should give us reason to think. Are we not demolishing the Legge house to save a tree that is ultimately going to die?

  • Bill McCreery

    My argument precisely Julia, +/-2 1/2 years ago when it was all unravelling. The excavation, foundations of the new building, altered ground water drainage patterns, etc. will make it impossible for that tree to live.

    Another sad aspect of this is that there was not the informed political leadership on that whole mess to bring it to a positive resolution.

  • Threadkiller

    “All trees die” is as stupid and self-serving an excuse for not trying to preserve them as any I’ve heard. There are many species of trees whose natural lifespans far exceed that of humans, some by a factor of centuries. I sincerely hope you’re not a medical practitioner, Julia. I would hate to see your brand of cold logic applied to human beings.

  • Bill McCreery

    That’s not the point Threadkiller. Would you rather save the Legg House, or try to save a tree, which can be replanted and allowed to re-flourish over time just as the present one did?

    The chosen alternative, in no small part due to pathetic political leadership, is that we will shortly see a dead tree in front of yet another massive, over dense, over height high rise tower.

    That’s really successful planning isn’t it?

  • Lewis N. Villegas

    Dead wood at City Hall??? Frances, say it isn’t so!

  • rph

    “…dead wood…”

    Thanks Lewis for a good morning chuckle!

  • Brilliant

    @Threadkiller 9 – trees aren’t people. The Legg House is irreplaceable. The tree is.

  • rph

    Yes, trees have a lifespan, and that tulip tree can live for hundreds of years.

    Or not. They can be weakened or killed deliberately or inadvertently. Not saying it will happen here, but I have seen city mandated protected trees, during the construction of new homes, dying in a couple of years. Too much root disturbance during construction? Removing the surrounding arable soil and replacing it with sand? Poisoned because the new homeowner considered it a nuisance, high maintenance, or it blocked a view?

  • IanS

    @Lewis Villegas #11:

    🙂

  • Julia

    #9, really???

  • F.H.Leghorn

    I know what happened to the tree. It was ground up and turned into paper on which they printed the fancy Vancouver House sales brochure which I found in my snail-mail box today.
    It’s similar to the website (http://westbankcorp.com/vancouver-house)
    but has two striking features: first, they offer 40 “estates” (big apartments) from $2.2Million to 20 Million for the penthouse; and second, there is a small rendering of the Granville Bridge (seen from some upper floor) with a “proposed greenway” down the middle of the bridge, leaving room for one car lane each way, north- and south-bound.
    Tiny figures on even tinier bicycles and wearing even tinier helmets are shown pedalling madly up the middle of the bridge on the landscaped greenway.
    Beats that ludicrous hoarding around the Trump tower with the rich young (white) people wallowing in luxury and conspicusous consumption.