So I went for a drive today. I have been avoiding this drive since the snow and wind storms at the end of November even though it is only a few blocks from my home. Stanley Park has always been a heavily forested area...until now. Looks more like a logging road than a city-centre park. Heartbreaking.
How d'ya like this rootball?
What once was a forest is no longer....
I wonder if the city hired lumberjacks?
There is a picture of this tree in PF that I took in the summer. Catalpa speciosa.
Such a shame - looks like a very old tree.
Any ideas what the plan for the park is? I like the root ball, what tree was that from?
Sun where there wasn't any...
To be honest, I quickly hopped out of the truck and asked one of those tourist trolley drivers to take my pic so didn't notice. Probably a Douglas Fir.
This damage is not the exception but the rule in the park especially where the storm hit head-on. They are talking about budgets and restoration, etc but I see Ivy everywhere and I know the park will be shortly overgrown by invasives.
This message was edited Feb 13, 2007 9:27 PM
So they removed the trees due to storm damage?
They cut the most dangerous, blocking roads, etc. I know they'll leave some inplace to decompose. It's currently being decided - take some of the logs out of the park, leave them and let nature take its course, replanting seedlings, etc.
Hey, a new Plantfiles Administrator! Congratulations!
How big an area has that kind of damage?
If it's any consolation, watching the succession process is interesting and surprisingly fast. There is a nature preserve near here that was absolutely sheared by an F5 tornado in, I think, 1997. Surprisingly, a few trees remained standing (tulip poplars and hickories, mainly), although stripped of branches. Many still survive. On the ground, things are really happening. It is a dense thicket of all kinds of stuff slugging it out for exposure to sunlight.
Scott
