A winter wren chirps out a spirited song on Wednesday at Stanley Park, scene of a ferocious windstorm almost exactly five years ago Wednesday.
Biologist Robyn Worcester of the Stanley Park Ecology Society said the wren’s happy melody is a symbol of the park’s resurgence from a tangled mass of ruined trees.
“When I come by and see babies in here and know that the nest was saved, it gives me a really good feeling,” she said.
“I’m very passionate about this. It’s is a great example of what can be done to create a healthy, resilient forest,” she said.
The wren is one of the winners in a $10-million plan to restore the park from hurricane-force winds which destroyed large swaths of trees on Dec. 15, 2006.
She said the work has been successful because so much money, expertise and willpower were available.
“This is a model which is shown to international foresters as an example of what can be done,” she said.
A total of 16,000 trees have been planted. Trails have been improved, the seawall restored and steep cliffs stabilized by improving drainage.
“Something that originally seemed catastrophic has turned out to be tremendously beneficial for the park,” said Brian Quinn, manager of horticulture for the Vancouver Park Board.
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The Pacific wren’s story is a good example of the kind of effort needed to do the job right.
Worcester said the songbirds, which are “super cute” and the size of a golf ball, like to nest in root wads created by overturned trees.
The problem was, the root wads lay attached to their tree trunks as work began to remove some of the wood.
The trick was to cut the trunk away in such a manner as to leave the root wad sticking up to provide habitat. If it wasn’t done right, the root wad would fall back to its original position flat on the ground and be useless for the wrens.
The mess of trees and root wads looked like a big pile of pickup sticks. As the operators cut up trees and separated the root wads, the trunk was liable to spring up dangerously from the mound.
“At first, it was a bit like a logging operation. The operators wanted to move quickly. Over time, as they got to know the ecologists and learned the importance of habitat, that changed. That was one of the best things that happened,” she said.
“The heavy-equipment operators were really brave. Talk about heart-stomping moments. One of my worst was when a machine operator was trying to preserve a root wad by cutting a long butt. The tree snapped and could have killed him,” she said.
But the wrens got their homes. So did the salamanders, which thrive in wetlands.
“One old guy from Vancouver Island had been logging for 50 years but had never seen a salamander. When I showed him it was a cute little animal with big black eyes, he started finding great wetland patches which could be saved. He loved the forest as much as I did,” she said.
Today, the “baby” forest consists of small Douglas firs and Western cedars, as well as elderberry, salmonberry and black raspberry bushes. There are fungus, beetles, worms and small animals, who have good ocean views because 90 per cent of the tall trees are gone from the windblown areas.
Some animals like flying squirrels and spotted owls, dependent on old growth forest, have moved on.
But a pair of eagles near Prospect Point have rebuilt their nest, raised young and can be seen soaring through the sky.
Not every development has been positive from a traditional west coast forest point of view.
With the loss of light-blocking overhead canopy, non-native species such as Himalayan blackberry bushes and English Ivy have thrived amid the vast quantities of sunlight. They choke out native plants.
Rare 500-year-old cedar trees, much older than the city’s most historic buildings, were also among the losers.
But Quinn said Parks Board staff are very proud of what’s been accomplished.
“We took the time to make it a success,” he said.
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