Stanley Park's Hollow Tree gets $150,000 fix
 

Vancouver’s first tourist attraction will receive a $150,000 facelift on Thursday with help from donors and volunteers.

The Hollow Tree in Stanley Park will be forced upright by a large crane to put the tree back to its original vertical position. In the next month, volunteers will install metal rods inside the tree to keep it safely propped up, said Russell Whitehead, the site manager.

The 1,000-year-old tree became a concern of the Vancouver Parks Board when it started to tilt after the 2007 storm that destroyed hundreds of trees in the park.

The tottering tree became a liability to the park because it could fall over and hit tourists who for decades have taken their pictures beside the tree, said Loretta Woodcock, vice-chair of the Vancouver Parks Board.

“The whole thing has been a saga,” Woodcock said of the decision to keep the tree or cut it down.

The tree was guarded with a fence to keep the public away, and the debate on its future began in February 2008, she said.

Engineers were called in to see if the tree could be salvaged. They determined saving the tree had a $200,000 price tag.

“It was quite controversial. People kept sending us e-mails telling us we've got to keep the tree up, it’s a landmark, it’s an artpiece, it’s an icon. Also, other people were saying that we can’t spend that kind of money on the tree.

“We decided not to spend that money on the tree, to put that tree to rest,” she said. Last year, parks board members unanimously agreed to cut the tree down.

Stanley Park regulars formed the Stanley Park Hollow Tree Conservation Society a month after the decision was made.

They decided to fundraise to save the tree, and successfully convinced the board to keep the tree if they could find the money to pay for raising the tree upright.

To date, 80 per cent of the necessary funding has been secured.

“[The parks board] sees Stanley Park as a nature preserve, that everything should be natural,” said Bruce MacDonald, spokesman of the Hollow Tree Conservation Society.

“We say it’s not a tree in the woods, it’s not a tree from nature. It’s dead. It’s always been a monument to trees that used to cover all of Vancouver,” he said.

Whitehead said tourists and Vancourites agree. He visits the tree every other day to ensure it “didn’t fall over.”

He said one out of 10 tourists and park regulars passing by will scream “tear it down” from their car window, while the other nine pause to take pictures.

“If we didn’t preserve it, it’d be on the ground rotting away. Once it’s up straight, it will be here forever,” he said.

Cement will hold the tree in place and metal rods will line the inside of the tree, Whitehead said.

About $65,000 worth of materials and labour were donated by various companies including Oceans Cement and Con-Tech Systems.

Another $55,000 was raised by the society. They have to raise more than $30,000 in cash, said MacDonald.

To donate, visit www.savethehollowtree.com.

http://www.theprovince.com/Stanley+P...673/story.html

LOL! It's dead!!! Not one green branch!! WHAT A WASTE OF MONEY!

if It was tax dollars I'd be screaming. if people want to waste their own money, then they're the dumbasses.

how many new trees could they plant in stanley park for $150,000 ?... 150 000? instead they fix one dead tree

too bad it didn't blow over... and too bad every tree within 10 feet of the causeway didn't blow over too. then they could have built more lanes!

So are they going to install gold platted branches with diamond incrusted leafs?

150K for the Hollow Tree? That sounds a bit excessive.

I pee'd on that tree when I was 16

I still feel bad for doing that :(

I want the tree to still be around when i grow up, but for $150k FUCK IT!

I mean, if it's like $2000 then sure why not. But for $150 000, that's a lot of dough for 1/2 a dead tree.

wicked, I love that tree.... it got me so much pussy back in high school used to take chicks there tellin ghost stories, scaring the panties off.... literally...

I would have donated if I knew they were rebuilding it, I heard talk they were gonna destroy it after the storm..

:lol wow what a waste of money

waste of money....

i know.. think of what that could've done towards ur car..

made mine super fast and crushed yours XD

nice, instead of roads ot public transit, we are fixing trees - only in Canada!

werd on waste of money

Reading comprehension > you

Do you think people would fund raise money and create a website to help fix a public road?

You're a retard.

Err...I don't think it's necessary fixing that tree...the greater Vancouver has so many more problems that could be fixed if the $150 000 is put into good use.

wut the shit?!?! wut a waste of money, it's just gonna die again soon... r they gonna spend more $$$ on it again in the future? fack!

someone go burn that dead POS down before they spend the $

Privately funded = $150K = do whatever you want.

Tax dollars = $20 = gas...O...lene

:thumbsup:

O CANADA OUR HOME AND NATIVE LAND

That money could buy me a used Gallardo .....

no you're a retard. public or private, thouse funds should go to anything but a tree.

You spend your money the way you want, they spend their money the way they want. What is hard to understand about that?

dang dude.. ur really slow. read my original post.

You're more retarded than I thought. When was the last time you spent your after tax income to fix a public road?

Do you not understand that the tree being fixed is PRIVATELY funded? Meaning people are using money out of their OWN pockets to fix it. Just like how you spend your OWN money for your OWN car, they are spending it on a tree. Some people value things differently.

That would be like telling you that you are retarded to spend money on modding your car when you should spend your money to fix the street that is outside my house.

I don't see why people are complaining at all. Sure it might be dumb to do so, but hey, they are spending their money and we get the benefits. If it was public funding and they took my tax dollars away, I would be pissed. But this has nothing to do with me, it's like some hippies who love gardening, expensive gardening.