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A group trying to save thousands of trees from being cut down in Vancouver’s famed Stanley Park has lost another legal battle.
But a court decision this week found that the City of Vancouver didn’t follow its own rules when contracting a firm to clear large swaths of the urban forest.
The B.C. Supreme Court ruled this week that the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Park Board acted reasonably in authorizing the final phases of a tree removal project at Stanley Park.
It began in 2023 out of concern that trees affected by a hemlock looper moth infestation posed fire and safety risks.
At the time, the park board estimated some 160,000 trees — about one-third of the park’s trees — had been left dead or dying as a result of the four-year-long infestation.
Vancouver Park Board staff are seeking approval to proceed with the next phase of a tree removal project in Stanley Park.
The park board says already thousands of trees have been cut because of a looper moth infestation.
The Save Stanley Park Preservation Society has fought the plan since the beginning, arguing the plan is not backed up by science and was pushed through without appropriate consultation.
But on Dec. 17, Justice Jasvinder Basran ruled against the society’s claim.
“There is no evidence that the [park board] blindly or blithely accepted the recommendations of Park Board staff,” he wrote in his decision.
Basran wrote that there was “no evidence, beyond mere speculation, that the Park Board prejudged the decisions” that led to it passing three resolutions — two in 2024 and one 2025 — on the project.
The judge also ruled that there was also no proof that commissioners ignored concerns expressed by the public.
Basran did, however, declare that the city did not have the required park board approval to enter into a $1.9-million agreement with contractor B.A. Blackwell & Associates Ltd., a forestry consulting firm, to remove the trees.
“The [city] does not have the authority to enter a sole source contract worth more than $750,000 without obtaining prior approval from the [park board],” the decision states.
The Preservation Society has so far been unsuccessful in stopping the felling of trees, and previously lost an effort to get a court-ordered injunction against the removal project.
‘Voracious’ moth larvae decimate trees
The hemlock looper moth is endemic to B.C. but, according to Natural Resources Canada, their populations have outbreaks every 11 to 20 years that tend to last three years.
The moth’s larvae are described as “wasteful, voracious consumers” that feed on foliage and can kill a tree in a single season, leading to substantial losses over the course of an outbreak.
The Stanley Park outbreak between 2019 and and 2022 decimated not just western hemlocks —but also Douglas firs, grand firs and western red cedars.
The infestation, combined with severe drought conditions in 2022 and 2023, took a toll on the park’s forest.
Other areas of Metro Vancouver, the Sunshine Coast and the Thompson-Okanagan region were also hit hard.
B.A. Blackwell & Associates, in its initial assessment report in 2020, determined that there would be an increased danger of wildfire in the park due to a buildup of fallen branches and dead trees.
Although the firm estimated that as many as 160,000 trees may need to be cut down at the time, the city says approximately 11,000 dead and dying trees have been removed so far over the three phases of the project.
The city says around 54,000 seedlings of native tree species have been replanted in the park since 2024 — including western red cedar, Douglas fir, grand fir, red alder, Sitka spruce and Pacific yew.
Just under $18 million has been spent on tree removal, replanting and looper moth mitigation work since 2023.
City staff estimated the contract for the final phase of work, which is expected to conclude in 2027, will exceed $3 million.
An estimated 160,000 trees in Vancouver’s Stanley Park are being cut down because of a looper moth caterpillar infestation. Some experts say the tree cull is necessary, but there’s concern it’s too many trees and could create wildfire corridors.
