Stanley Park

The December 14-15th wind storm, with help from a rainy winter, left a big dent on Stanley Park. The blowdown between Prospect Point and Third Beach was impressive. The road feels like a trench chainsawed through a wood pile ... but the views from the road toward North Vancouver are much improved! I watched a pair of bald eagles perched near their nest in one of the large trees along the shore that had not been snapped off 50' above the ground. Fallen trees and steep slopes have covered portions of the Seawall trail, which had already been severely damaged by the waves - reports and pictures of large sections of pavement being tossed around. The trail between Lion's Gate Bridge and Siwash Rock is closed and rexpected to remain so through the coming year. Another chunk of soil and trees came down on it in the heavy rain right before last week's conference.

I've heard some folks calling this a tragedy. If a bunch of kids with chain saws had done this, it would have been a tragedy. This was just a big storm doing what big storms are supposed to do - we can hope that no one gets hurt, but what makes Stanley Park special is that this kind of thing CAN still happen.