STANLEY PARK NOTEBOOK
/by Nate Lewis
(click images to enlarge)
The 27th annual Bright Nights will run from November 27 to January 4.
BEHIND THE SCENES WITH VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTERS AT BRIGHT NIGHTS
Since 1998, the Park Board and BC Professional Firefighters’ (BCPFF) Burn Fund have partnered on the annual Bright Nights holiday event at the Stanley Park children’s farmhouse and miniature train site.
Firefighters from local unions all across the province come to Stanley Park every year to volunteer at Bright Nights, lending their strengths and skills to the event’s extensive two-month setup and tear down process. The support extends beyond that, as each local will participate in one night of the event, and contribute custom-made decorations to the displays, bringing local flavour and unique energy from across the province.
Port Moody Local 2399 is one of 56 firefighters’ unions participating in this year’s event. When The West End Journal (TWEJ) visited on an overcast mid-November day they were preparing the site, arranging lights, and setting up various Christmas-themed displays. All told, the volunteers string up more than 3 million lights – many of them donated to the Burn Fund over the years – all over the area, turning an often-neglected part of the park into a shining focal point of festivity.
Mark Wallbank is a professional firefighter with the Port Moody local. He’s been volunteering at Bright Nights for the past six years.
Firefighter volunteers hard at work in preparation for this year’s event (Nate Lewis Photo)
“You show up and you don't really know what to expect,” Wallbank told TWEJ. “ I've worked in a lift before. I've worked off of a crane. We've had to set up tents. We've had to set up different displays. Every year we kind of do something different,” he said, as ten of his colleagues around us prepped the grounds for an installation site and vigorously scrubbed the polar bear and penguin display.
“This is probably our biggest [volunteering] year,” Wallbank said, with 11 volunteers from their 49-person local helping with the event set up that day.
Ticket sales for the holiday train are completely sold out for this year – with the Stanley Park Railway apologizing for the “deeply frustrating experience” for customers trying to buy tickets in a new fully online ticketing system. But if you didn't get a ticket for the train, don't let that stop you from coming to Bright Nights, Wallbank said.
Mark Wallbank during a Bright Nights set up day (Nate Lewis Photo)
“You can definitely still show up… There's still plenty of other things to see beside just going on the train,” Wallbank said encouragingly.
Entry to Bright Nights is free but donations are strongly encouraged. Through donations and proceeds from train ticket sales donated by the park board, the Burn Fund raises about $300,000 in a typical year, making it their single largest fundraising event.
“It’s nice to see how people from all over the Fraser Valley come to enjoy this, so it makes it all worthwhile. It’s definitely a good, family friendly place… and it's for a really good cause,” Wallbank said.
Founded in 1978, the BCPFF Burn Fund is dedicated to helping burn survivors through supportive programs and retreats, enhanced medical care, and the provision of accommodation for survivors and their families. The Burn Fund also provides burn prevention training and resources to various groups.
In 2016, they established the Burn Fund Centre on Main Street and 23rd Avenue. With eight short-term suites, a communal kitchen, and a living room space in this purpose-built building, burn and trauma survivors, including firefighters, and their families from out of town have somewhere to stay when they need to be in Vancouver for medical treatment.
In 2020, the Burn Fund also created a 50/50 raffle to recoup lost funds during the cancellation of Bright Nights due to the pandemic. They’ve continued to offer the draw as a way to raise more money, with tickets available for purchase online.
The 27th annual Bright Nights will run from November 27 to January 4 this winter.
ELSEWHERE IN THE PARK
Tree removal work is continuing in Stanley Park, with phase two in the park board’s efforts to remove trees killed by the multi-year outbreak of Hemlock looper moths.
A helicopter removing a tree from the cliffs near Prospect Point in mid November. (Nate Lewis Photo)
As most park users will have noticed, the seawall between Prospect Point and Third Beach has been closed for about a month to accommodate the log removals via helicopter and annual slope stabilization work on the northwestern cliffs of the park. This portion of the seawall is scheduled to reopen on December 6th.
Regarding the ongoing work, park board staff had the following to say:
“The majority of affected trees are Western Hemlocks, which make up a significant portion of the Stanley Park forest. A smaller number of Douglas Firs and Western Red Cedars are also affected. Hazard trees are being removed for safety reasons, as they pose a risk to park visitors and infrastructure. Dead trees that are impacted will either be removed from the park by helicopter or left on the ground as coarse woody debris or nurse logs, contributing to forest regeneration and biodiversity.
The Park Board is working with qualified forestry and arboriculture professionals to assess risk and prioritize tree removal based on safety and ecological considerations. Wood from this operation will be set aside for cultural use by the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, and any remaining logs will be processed locally to support ongoing restoration work in the park.”
As work is ongoing, staff weren’t able to share the number of trees being removed in this current phase. However, during phase one of the work last winter and spring, there were 7,201 trees cut down. In their online materials about the project, the park board emphasizes that, of the original assessment that 160,000 trees were affected by the looper moth, “only a fraction of these impacted trees will need to be removed due to their risks to public safety.”
As part of phase one, 25,000 seedlings of native trees were planted in the work areas. Restoration efforts – tree planting and invasive species management – will continue this spring to “enhance the resilience of Stanley Park’s forest ecosystem,” according to the park board.
