Park Board seeking $5 million from City Council to deal with Stanley Park moths

December 2023 mitigation work in Stanley Park for the Hemlock Looper Moth infestation. (Daily Hive)

The Vancouver Park Board is making a plea to Vancouver City Council for a one-time budget request of $4.9 million towards emergency mitigation work of the trees damaged by the Hemlock Looper Moth infestation in Stanley Park.

This funding request will be considered by City Council in a public meeting next week.

The tree-killing moths have overrun Stanley Park, with initial mitigation work conducted in late 2023 by Park Board crews already costing $1.9 million under the 2023 operating budget.

This work involves reducing fuel load and dead trees in high-traffic areas of the park, which will help reduce the risk of wildfires during the dry seasons.

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Last month, the Park Board announced it would cut over 100,000 trees in Stanley Park damaged by the moths. In total, 160,000 trees will be removed, with 140,000 trees being relatively young with a trunk diameter under 20 cm.

If approved, the $4.9 million will go towards further mitigation work between now and the end of March 2024. This includes a 49-acre area along the Stanley Park Causeway, a 17-acre area in Prospect Point, a 59-acre area along Pipeline Road, a 17-acre area along Chickadee Trail, a 52-acre area near Vancouver Aquarium, and a 17-acre area in Brockton Point. This translates to 211 acres or 21% of Stanley Park’s overall area of about 1,000 acres.

In addition to tree removal work, restoration in the impacted areas with “significant replacement tree planting and management of competing vegetation” will begin later this year.

The looper moth experiences outbreaks on a 15-year cycle, with each outbreak typically lasting for up to two years before the insects are killed by cold winters and natural predators. However, the current outbreak first began in 2019 on the North Shore, and due to warmer winter and spring conditions, the outbreak has continued for a fourth year. The Park Board has not used pesticides as it would impact other moths, butterflies, and other insect species.

Megan Devlin/Daily Hive | @apprximatly_ma/Twitter

City staff have recommended to City Council the $4.9 million should be tapped from the municipal government’s General Revenue Stabilization Reserve. The City has been rebuilding the balance of this reserve since the initial pandemic onset when it used much of the reserve to cover the sudden shortfall in revenue to keep municipal operations going. Currently, after about two years of some replenishing, the reserve has a balance of about $80 million — still down from the pre-pandemic balance of about $146 million.

This specific reserve is used as a contingency fund for inclement weather such as snowstorm and windstorm response, catastrophic events such as wildfires and major earthquakes, environmental hazards such as oil spills, and extraordinary public safety situations such as riots and terrorism, and economic downturns and unforeseen changes in revenue.

The Park Board needs to ask City Council for this budget increase and allocation of funding, as City Council controls the budget of the Park Board and the overall finances of the municipal government.

The mayor and City Council are currently engaged in a process with the provincial government to abolish the elected Park Board. If the provincial government proceeds with the required amendments to the Vancouver Charter, the governance responsibilities for Vancouver’s parks and recreation system will be transferred to the mayor and City Council.

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