I have to agree with Stuart Lefeaux, the long-time superintendent of Stanley Park, about the consequences of the December windstorm: “The end result is that Stanley Park will be much more interesting than before.”
Though retired in 1979, Lefeaux saw the results of Hurricane Freda in 1962. In this article in the Courier, he told of what followed:
“The storm opened up quite a swath behind the Hollow Tree and we made that into a picnic area,” he says. “The biggest result though was that we were able to build the children’s zoo and miniature railway in an area cleared by the blowdown.”
The storm also cleared the way for the development of the Prospect Point picnic area and created viewpoints and vistas towards the ocean and North Shore.
Given the news coverage, many people probably believe the damage to be worse than it was, that Stanley Park was affected throughout its thousand acres. But save for a few areas of blowdown, it looks pretty much the same at casual glance. Where the microbursts roared through – Cathedral Trail, Prospect Point – the damage is dramatic. From Prospect Point to the Hollow Tree, the seaward slopes down to the Merilees Trail have been decimated.
But the extent of the blowdown is limited. Result: the view through to English Bay has been opened up, and is, as Lefeaux suggests, much more interesting.
Though I doubt the Parks Board would put it this way, the outpouring of grief and generosity is going to lever a lot of opportunity to make capital improvements, particularly slope stabilization, that would be otherwise unaffordable but will also change the park in some ways. Stanley Park has added another layer of history to its landscape, and more diversity for those of us who experience it.
Here, by the way, is the New York Times story – Its Wild Heart Broken, a City, Like Its Eagles, Rebuilds.
