by Jacqui Birchall
(click images to enlarge)

ANCIENT TREES OF VANCOUVER
Tours of Stanley Park

Two years ago I interviewed the very personable Colin Spratt, founder of Ancient Trees Of Vancouver. Colin was on a quest to map and draw all the ancient trees in our city.

*Colin Spratt beside an approximately 1,ooo year-old Western Red Cedar in Stanley Park.* (J. Birchall Photos)

Despite the naysayers who assured him that Stanley Park had been logged of all the ancient trees over the park’s history, Colin bushwhacked, spending hours not only in Stanley Park but Pacific Spirit Park and Lynn Valley. Colin tells me our original interview brought his name and research to many. He came upon the North Shore Giant following our interview, a discovery that brought him much recognition. Read about the Giant here.

Colin has discovered trees as old as 1,000 years.

Two years later, much of his project has been completed and Colin is now leading fascinating guided tours of the ancient trees in Stanley Park. I was lucky enough to be invited on a private tour.

The tour takes approximately two hours, starting close to Third Beach. You may finish the tour around Second Beach, or return with Colin to Third Beach. The tour is suitable for all ages and fitness levels and covers approximately four kilometres. Sensible footwear is best.

Colin’s research has taught him much. The tour is like a wonderful conversation rather than a lecture. Colin has very old photos of the trails he takes you on to show how things have and have not changed in the park. How the trees once were and still are in several cases. His knowledge of the trees, the huge stumps, how forests regenerate after storms and fires, how trees find new life by growing on stumps, will mean that your future walks in the park will never be the same again. Your view of the forest, the trees, and the area will be permanently altered.

Colin will show you Canada’s biggest maple tree, ancient Douglas Firs, one of the park's only yew trees, and 600 to 1,000 year-old Western Red Cedar trees. I was fascinated by the indentations left on the trees by early loggers and Indigenous peoples. By the end of the tour you will understand how early loggers spent days sawing giant trees, and how the Coast Salish would chose or reject a tree, which they would ultimately use for many different purposes, from canoes to planks for a long house. You will also learn how the Coast Salish harvested cedar bark.

I kept thinking of the late Gordon Lightfoot’s words, “When the green dark forest was too silent to be real.” In Stanley Park you can truly be alone in the silence and beauty.

Colin will explain how Stanley Park came to be, how over-management over the last century has had negative implications for the park, and how forest regeneration is possible naturally.

Colin’s tours are available throughout the summer and autumn, offering ample opportunities to walk and learn with Colin. He has followers from all over the world who travel to Vancouver to meet Colin and take his tour. Tour participants are 50 percent local and 50 percent visitors. A portion of proceeds from the tours is going into conservation for and awareness of old growth.

Colin is a member of the BC Big Tree Committee. He cleans the trails he hikes on and he would like Stanley Park to become recognized as an old growth forest.

You can find more information or book your tour here and follow Colin on instragam @ancient_trees_of_vancouver. He was recently featured in Canadian Geographic Magazine.

*Lawn bowling in Stanley Park.* (J. Birchall Photo)

LAWN BOWLING IN THE PARK

Recently a very energetic, socially active friend waxed lyrical about the Stanley Park Lawn Bowling Club. “You should join, it’s wonderful,” he told me!

I had always imagined elderly folk dressed in white. Not so much!

This one hundred and six year-old club has members that range in age from 35 to 90. President Chris Chapman believes the club is the largest, fastest growing, most diverse, and youngest, of all the bowling clubs in Canada.

The club has developed a policy of inclusivity and their listed values include diversity, respect, inclusion, sportsmanship and fun. Chris would like to see the membership become even more culturally diverse.

Thursday evenings are called Blue Heron Nights. These evenings are organized by the gay members but all are welcome, all included and it seems, all very desirous of participating!

The club is for both bowling and socializing. You may become a bowling member at a cost of $250 per year or a social member, (no bowling but lots of fun) at $75 per year.

Wondering if it’s for you? For $30 you can take two lessons. If you decide to join, the $30 is deducted from your bowling membership annual dues.

The club boasts two beautiful greens, with a total of sixteen rinks. At any given time 128 folks could be bowling.

The bowling is both competitive and social. You don’t have to be great, but if you are you can compete. Chris tells me many bowlers bowl socially for the first year or two and then begin to bowl competitively.

The club is host to one Provincial championship a year, plus a Vancouver and District tournament for novices.

Those who want to bowl have their names drawn at random to make up the day’s rinks. Rinks are made up of all levels. You only need flat soled shoes. Everything else you need to bowl is supplied by the club.

There are Friday night BBQs for $8 to $10 and a licensed bar. Social events are organized on special occasions and public holidays, and fireworks nights are fun to view from the club grounds.

Bowling finishes at the end of September to allow the grounds to regenerate over the autumn and winter months. During the fall and winter months, the club offers weekly euchre, cribbage and bridge clubs.

SWIMMING ATTIRE RULES UPDATED
Topless Swimming Allowed At Pools

The Park Board has amended appropriate swimming attire guidelines to include the following;

Bathing suits
Swim trunks or board shorts
T-shirts and shorts
Burkinis
Swim hijab, leggings and tunics
Rash guards
Wetsuits

Unacceptable attire, according to the report, includes items designed for sexual or intimate purposes, clothing that absorbs water and becomes heavy, like jeans and sweatpants, and long, flowing fabrics.

Staff clarified that exposed breasts would be permitted for all people, but that swimwear must fully cover the genitals.

NOTES FROM THE NOTEBOOK

*Eagle with nest in Stanley Park*. (J. Birchall Photo)

EAGLES’ NESTS, BATS, & SPES … Recently I was lucky enough to be invited by Marisa Bischoff of the Stanley Park Ecology Society (SPES) to observe the eagles’ nests in Stanley Park. Much more to come in future columns, but to observe a fluffy chick peeking over the edge of one giant nest was truly amazing. Information on Stanley Park bats coming up too.

TOTEM POLES … Totem poles are not culturally indigenous to Vancouver. They do not come from the Coast Salish peoples, and local carver James Harry of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (the Squamish people), with a Kwakwaka’wakw grandmother, wonders why the totems are so prominently displayed in Stanley Park, on Coast Salish territory. Stay tuned for further insights.

FLAGS FLYING … At an historic event at spapəy̓əq Pápiy̓eḵ, commonly known as Brockton Point, flags representing the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations were raised recently. This is the first time the local Nations’ flags have been permanently raised in a park in the city of Vancouver.

The decision to raise the flags follows discussion by the Stanley Park Intergovernmental Working Group, composed of staff from the Nations and the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation.

NO LIFEGUARDS … There are no lifeguards at Second Beach for now, as the City of Vancouver says there too few lifeguards available at the moment.

EARLY SWIM HOURS … Early swims are available only until Kits Pool reopens, and then Second Beach pool will be closed until noon. Very unfortunate.

FIRE & RESCUE SERVICES … Vancouver Fire & Rescue Services (VFRS) will be operating two ATVs in Stanley Park this summer. The vehicles allow VFRS to travel the trails and go off-trail in the park. One of the ATVs has a built-in gurney and the other is fitted with a fire hose, shovel and axe.

ALCOHOL AT BEACHES & PARKS … This is confusing at the moment. Alcohol is now allowed around Second Beach and at Lumberman’s Arch, according to a Park Board news release. Glass containers are not. Legalizing alcohol consumption in some public spaces may have encouraged drunken parties at English Bay (where drinking is not allowed).

Cyclists protest the removal of the “temporary” bike lane.

BIKE LANES … Cyclists have been protesting following the seemingly surreptitious Park Board ordered removal of the bike lane concrete barriers late in the evening on May 19.

More protests are planned.

However, Stanley Park restaurant operators like the changes.