Vancouver to remove a fraction of 160K Stanley Park trees it originally estimated

The city now says just 20,000 to 30,000 trees will be removed for safety after being killed by the hemlock looper moth.

The City of Vancouver has significantly reduced its estimate of the number of trees that will need to be removed from Stanely Park.

In November of 2023, the Vancouver Park Board estimated that up to 160,000 trees that had been killed by a hemlock looper month infestation would need to be cut down for safety reasons.

But in an estimate released this week, that number has been significantly downgraded.

“So we are suspecting we will likely be removing anywhere from 20,000 to 30,000 in the park, only those that are causing the most risk to public safety,” Joel McLeod, associate director of urban forestry told Global News.

“We will be leaving the majority of the trees that are dead, especially those that are out of high-use areas.”

While this is the first time the city has presented an alternative estimate for the number of trees to be removed, McLeod said the 160,00 figure was only considered “very early on” in the process.

He added that many of the dead trees are small, or do not pose a serious safety risk for other reasons.

“But I think it’s fair to say that that has never really been the case that we are planning to remove all 160,000 trees park,” he said. “Only 20,000 of the trees exceed 20cm in diameter.”