A sad fact about losing heritage and character homes to the bulldozer is that not only does the home, full of history and craftsmanship, disappear forever, but most often the old trees and gardens on its property are clearcut, too. These trees and gardens are not singular, isolated organisms without any connection to their surroundings- they are part of a decades-old, even century-old urban ecosystem that is literally being chipped away daily across the North Shore.
We all know the numerous benefits of trees, but the recent, devastating heatwave really highlighted the need for trees’ ability to provide crucial shade and cooling in the city. The pandemic made the mental health benefit of trees even more obvious and critical. These benefits as well as countless more are crucial to life and healthy living, yet there is no bylaw in the City of North Vancouver (CNV) to regulate or prevent people from cutting down trees on their own property. The main method of tree management by the CNV is only through the development process and this doesn’t seem to be working nearly well enough. The CNV has a list of heritage “resources” that includes a number of city trees (some that are on private property) but these are not necessarily legally protected. It just means that there would be a discussion about them if the land were to be redeveloped and they would possibly be retained.
Councillor Don Bell has tried for a number of years to bring in a tree policy without much success, but in March of this year he tried again and put forth a motion to regulate tree cutting in the City. There is nothing concrete as yet but Council voted unanimously to support an amended motion to see how they could implement an interim bylaw to protect trees while they look further into the bylaw issue. They have also asked staff to develop an urban forest management strategy. I hope this produces a full and robust bylaw sooner than later.
On the North Shore, the District of North Vancouver and the District of West Vancouver have tree bylaws that have designated certain species of trees to be “heritage trees” which have some protection, and have included in the bylaws rules about removing trees over a certain diameter, but even then, if a relatively small fee is paid or a replacement tree put in, often a tree removal permit will be granted, especially if the tree is within the building envelope of new development and won’t affect nearby waterways.
However, there are some cases of redevelopment in the City like the HRA (Heritage Revitalization Agreement) of the Green-Armytage property of 116 W. 23rd, where retaining an old oak tree and building a dry creek bed to help keep the roots watered was a key part of the plan to move a heritage building to the corner of the property and create a 29-unit development.
Oak tree that was preserved as part of the Green-Armytage development at 116 West 23rd in North Vancouver.
Other larger City developments have had trees retained during the process as well, and some of these trees are listed in the heritage directory, however this type of retention seems much less common with smaller property redevelopment and that is something that needs to change.
The West Coast Modern building philosophy of building into the landscape seems to be in the minority these days, as apparently, it's simpler and faster to tear everything out and start from scratch. So where does that leave the urban forest in this age of rampant re-development? Is anyone taking a stand against this trend and speaking up for these trees? Fortunately we do have heritage tree crusaders on the North Shore.
Jennifer Clay, VP of North Shore Heritage, is one of them. She has noticed that current practices leave our urban forest largely diminished. She estimates that roughly 35 large trees in her neighbourhood have been cut down in the last 15 years as a result of development. However, she has taken a significant stand against this practice. She lives in the DNV and has a beautiful, old, Norway spruce at the western border of her large lot which is a lot and a half in size. When a developer bought the neighbouring property, also a lot and a half, they wanted to be able to buy her half-lot to give themselves two building lots. They offered her $400,000 initially and then two weeks later, $700,00. She turned down the money to save the tree and the surrounding greenspace.
Since that time, as if to assure her she had made the right choice, Jennifer has seen both a hawk and an owl at different times using the spruce to perch.
Cooper’s Hawk, August 19, 2020, in the Norwegian Spruce tree at the home of Jennifer Clay.
She hopes to further protect the tree by making a legal covenant with the District that would ensure the tree’s safety, even if she sold the property. There is no current framework for doing this for trees on private property, but she would like to be one of the first to make this happen. There are buildings that have heritage designation and protection, why not trees?
Owl, October 2, 2019, in the Norwegian Spruce tree at the home of Jennifer Clay.
Another advocate for private land tree retention is Ron Polly. His home is one of five ‘Heritage A’ status 1911 Craftsman style homes currently on Cumberland Crescent in the Hamilton Heights area of the CNV. He has what he believes is the oldest Douglas fir on privately owned City property and he felt it could even be an old growth tree.
Douglas fir tree (back left corner of this photo) at the home of Ron Polly.
He contacted NSH to talk to us about it as he was concerned about how quickly large trees were disappearing in his area and wanted to do something to protect the large tree on his property. David Cook, who is a biologist, geologist, director of the Old Growth Conservancy Society and an active conservationist, was kind enough to come and assess the Douglas fir and educate us on features of old growth trees. He measured the fir at 3.67 metres circumference and looked at its bark and branches.
Close up of Ron Polly’s Douglas Fir tree
Despite it’s large girth and height, he said that it didn’t have the distinct features of an old-growth tree (250 years old or more). However, this doesn’t mean that it isn’t still significantly old for a City tree or that it’s not valuable. Every large tree has tremendous value in an urban forest. Just like the hawk and owl do with Jennifer’s Clay’s spruce, eagles and other birds frequent Ron’s Douglas fir. This alone makes the tree valuable, not to mention many other factors, so Ron is also considering protecting the tree with a legal covenant.
There is a beautiful and powerful momentum gathering that we need to keep strong as people on the North Shore are becoming more involved in tree preservation as a community. The protection of the roughly 200-year-old cedar on 21st and Eastern Ave is a potent example of this.
Cedar tree at 21st and Eastern Avenue in North Vancouver that was on the “chopping block”
When it was learned that the cedar was going be imminently cut down to make way for the parkade entrance of a large new development, citizens immediately sprang into action. Despite being told by the construction company in charge of the project that they had looked into it extensively and could only save a different tree on the property through re-design, North Vancouver citizens protested. There were people at the tree from morning until evening, letters were written by adults and children alike, art was made, music was performed under the tree’s branches and over 23,000 signatures were gathered in an online petition.
Artwork and signage on cedar tree at 21st and Eastern.
In the end, Darwin Construction listened and worked further to redesign the six story building at the heart of conflict to make tree retention possible after all and the tree was saved. Darwin went through significant effort to make this happen, so it’s not always an easy route to take, but it was worth it to all those people who wanted to preserve this magnificent tree for us and for future generations. Let’s not make this the last stand and wait for policy to be written. Let’s continue to stand up as a community for these silent giants.
Do you have any old trees in your neighbourhood or your own property that are special to you?
FUN FACTS:
1: A “heritage tree” as defined by the DNV’s tree bylaw is “a designated tree that has been determined to be of significant value to the community because of special characteristics such as size, age, uniqueness of species, uniqueness of ecosystem, or heritage or landmark value.” Some examples of these are Garry oak, arbutus, Oregon ash, Western white pine, yellow cedar, and Pacific yew. Some of the trees include on the CNV’s list of heritage resources are Dutch elms, Scotch elms, wild cherry, monkey puzzle and pollarded horse chestnut.
2: A few important features of an old growth tree according to David Cook are:
Reiteration - where branches are complex with extra branches coming off them and they aren’t in a radial pattern coming off the trunk
b) Deep clefts in the bark
c) Bark up to a foot thick. (Measuring the bark’s thickness can only be done with core sampling).
3: Trees communicate with other trees through their roots by using a vast web of fungal threads. The fungi use up to one third a tree’s sugar supply to grow but it can be worth it when important messages get relayed. For example, if a beetle is attacking one tree, other trees may be warned so that they can produce pitch, a sticky substance, to protect themselves.