One of Vancouver’s most recognizable civic assets has been neglected and degraded to the point it’s become a “44-acre mud puddle” according to a longtime West End resident.
James Borthwick has lived in the neighbourhood for nearly six decades and acknowledges he’s lucky to have his highrise view of Stanley Park.
But he says for the last two decades the city has ignored Lost Lagoon, allowing it to become a swampy mess bereft of the wildlife that once teemed in it.
“It’s turned into a mud puddle instead of the beautiful wildlife sanctuary it’s always been,” he told Global News, adding that the swans and herons have abandoned the lagoon.
“You could see they weren’t paying attention to the fountain,” he added. “It’s embarrassing. Completely embarrassing.”
The iconic Jubilee fountain, once the face of postcards mailed around the world, has been offline for close to a decade.
Vancouver Park Board Commissioner Tom Digby acknowledged the lagoon isn’t in its finest form.
He said its current woes are both environmental and economic.
“We would love to clean up the lagoon, and if we had the money we would,” he said.
Digby said that as an artificial urban lake, Lost Lagoon is beset by sedimentation, invasive species, and toxins washing in from the adjacent Stanley Park causeway.
Amid ongoing drought and climbing temperatures due to climate change, it’s also frequently become murky due to algae blooms, he added.
“Lost Lagoon wants to be an intertidal zone connected to Coal Harbour, that’s what it always was biologically and it is really calling us to go back to that,” he said.
“If we were able to fix this that you would have a wonderful intertidal zone here with all kinds of clam life and ocean life … but right now it simply exists as this pond, and unfortunately it’s not very healthy.”
Fixing the fountain, Digby said, remains outside of the park board’s budget.
In December, city staff reported upgrading and reactivating the fountain would cost at least $7 million. At the time, the board approved $2.6 million to refurbish and reactivate 11 other water features in the city, including the waterfall at Queen Elizabeth Park.
“Unfortunately there are currently no plans to put the major investment that’s needed to revitalize this into a real biodiversity zone we can be proud of,” he said.
Urban planner and former Vancouver city councillor Gordon Price said eschewing that investment shows a lack of vision on the part of the city.
He argued the city should pressure Metro Vancouver for funding to improve the area in association with the major water main project currently being tunnelled beneath Stanley Park.
“Nature always wins, ultimately your problems will emerge over time, so you are always running into that. The question now is how much should we spend and what should we do?” he said.
“Think big, or more important, just think creatively and imaginatively, draw on First Nations traditions, draw on our own history, and do something that’s appropriate for the century that we are in.”
Borthwick, meanwhile, views the issue in simpler terms.
“It used to be great,” he said.
“Fix the fountain. Bring back the wildlife.”