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Leave Stanley Park to heal itself, experts say
Animals will survive, new species will arrive, 'nature is resilient'
Urban wildlife specialist Robyn Worcester yesterday inspects heron nests near the English Bay entrance to the park.

John Bermingham, The Province
Published: Thursday, January 11, 2007

Do little for the animals of Stanley Park.

And please stay out of the park, for your own safety.

Urban wildlife experts say Mother Nature, not human moms and pops, will heal the damage to the forest from recent storms.

Mike Mackintosh, the park board's wildlife manager, said squirrels, beavers and otters affected by the blowdown of more than 3,000 trees will renew the park's ecosystem.

"Nature is resilient," Mackintosh said yesterday.

He said the shakeup will bring in more species and even increase wildlife numbers. But he advised against anyone feeding the animals.

"If an animal lives in the park, it's because the habitat supports that," said Mackintosh. "Human beings should not interfere."

As the forest canopy opens up, he said, new kinds of birds will join the 90 common park species.

Normally living in the deep forest, bard owls have been seen hanging out on trees in the West End. Raccoons, skunks and squirrels are foraging beyond the park limits, as are coyotes.

Robyn Worcester, urban wildlife specialist with the Stanley Park Ecology Society, said only six of the 176 heron nests have been destroyed. The herons are due back for nesting season later this month.

One of the park's four eagle nests was also wrecked in a treefall, but that eagle pair is already re-nesting.

In walks around the park since the storms came in mid-December, Worcester has heard lots of birdsong and woodpeckers hard at work.

"This is a natural process in the West Coast ecosystem, and the wildlife will adjust accordingly," she said.

Worcester figures it will take up to 500 years for the park to completely restore its mature forest canopy.

Park board officials pleaded with the public yesterday to stay out of the park until further notice, after a 34-year-old Vancouver woman was injured by a falling tree. She's in intensive care with broken bones but is now conscious.

The eastern portion of the park could reopen today. Crews are assessing removing 24 unstable trees.