Ground support: a tentacle-like grip on the soil

This particular tree is located along the west sidewalk as you approach the Burrard Bridge coming from Cornwall. It is part of an impressive line of trees shielding the Chestnut Street, triple-winged apartment building from the busy street.

What makes this a Great Tree is the root system bulging from the earth, showing a long, tentacle-like grip on the soil. The amount of leaves this tree drops come autumn also makes it a contender as a Great Tree. Not sure what kind of tree this is, and there are certainly other larger, wider, leafier cousins nearby, but something about this one showing off it’s ground support stands out.

– David N.

Mme. Nature did all the design work

I chose this tree  – an Ash – among a few others because it is so perfectly formed–without any help from us. Mme Nature did all the design work. There are so many wonderful trees in Vancouver, all of which I’d like to adopt… Personally? I’m pretty sure I have a tree gene so I’d marry one if the law allowed.

This Great Tree is on the west of Fir on the North side of West 12th. In front of the first bldg on that corner.

– Janet H.

Pigeon Park’s Giant

She stands so tall, and so stands so long.  Literally and virtually and actually unclimbable.

She stands there launching at the buildings around her.

I’m sure you’ve seen her.  You can’t help but see her.  She’s impossible not to notice.

The Pigeon Park Giant.  Never has a tree been decorated and seen so much as the Giant.  The downtown, the trials and triumphs… she has seen them.  Where we all give up, she cries a little and grows some more.

– Joe C.

Kits Beach: Weeping willows, sweeping majesty

Trees are my most favourite Beings on the planet next to whales and dolphins. People take some getting used to.

The first time I became aware I was in love with a tree I was seven years old.  My family had recently moved to Vancouver from Port Hardy.  This was 1963 and we moved into Kitsilano.  I was used to being surrounded by old evergreen forests and large cedars that creaked when the breeze blew through their tops.  It was a deeply southing sound and comforts me still.

We moved here in late summer and the first time I went to Kits each I saw the Weeping Willows that stand between the change rooms and the basketball court.  Branches swept the ground and tickled my skin as I played with them.  I was completely enchanted by these gentle giants that swept down with such majesty, instead of reaching up to the sky I was used to.

– Maureen M.

A plum perfect welcome to Vancouver

I used to live in the house at the corner of 19th and Balsam when I first moved to Vancouver.  After a few weeks I was happy to find out there was a plum tree right outside my window.  Everyday when I left the house I would pluck a few plums and have a delicious snack for the day.  It was a perfect way to welcome me to Vancouver and added some sweet-tartness to my first months in the city.

– Rebecca H.

The tiny magnolia

There is a small magnolia tree right on the corner of Haro and Bidwell.  There is about 4 magnolia trees lining the street.  This one stands out because it is struggling to get bigger.  It has huge flowers on it.  It is my favourite tree in Van.

– Shawn B.

Fred’s Tamarack Tree

Fred’s Tamarack  is a story of a shipyard ,  its workers and a tree that deserves to be recognized. Like many other old forgotten trees in Vancouver this Tamarack has a story to tell.

Today as you can see, it looks completely out of place with its protective screening around it , a lady who passed by  said “it looks dead.”  Well it’s a survivor , most of the other native trees were cut down, to make way for a housing development. Lucky, for when it was planted at the gate to the shipyard by  some worker, he dug the hole just outside of the legal property line.

As the Tamarack looses its needles every year and grows them back in the spring, For years I had to protect the tree in the winter from being chainsawed down by tree experts who came to the office , to tell us it was dead and needed to come down . Sure it looks kind of scruffy but it is only having its “winter rest”!  For years the Tamarack stood tall at the gate until it was topped for new powerlines, but it survived.  In Feb 1976 Fred, the skipper of a boat  the “Forest Cruiser” that worked from the B. C. Forest Service Marine Station, was killed while rescuing four other people from a sinking Beaver Float plane on the West Coast of Van. Island.  All the shipyard  workers agreed that our friend and hero should be recognized  at the shipyard site in some way. I remembered Fred asking me about the funny looking tree at the gate one day,  it looked like a tree he knew in Jamaica.  From that day on the Tamarack or Larch as some people call them , was known as “FRED’S  TREE.”  Time has passed, the shipyard was sold , the forestry workers retired or found other jobs but the Tamarack tree, or as the Southlands residents call it   “Snoopy’s Christmas Tree” is still there.  The tree is a lasting tribute and reminder of our shipyard friend and Hero Fred.  Fred’s Tree is located on Celtic Ave. between Balaclava Street and Carnarvon Street.

– Terry S. , Boat builder B. C. Forest Service Marine Station

Everything that encompasses a summer day in the city

My favourite tree is a ruby red horse chestnut that sits between the cricket pitch and the rugby pitch at Brockton Oval in Stanley Park. It’s my favourite tree because I always sit under it in the summer when I spend a weekend day at Stanley Park. It provides a great shady viewing point when watching cricket and rugby, and often has players sitting under it providing their own commentary on the matches!

The tree is at the top of a hill that looks down onto the seawall, so it a great spot for watching people making their way around. It is also a great tree to sit under when watching seaplanes taking off and landing, and for watching the cruise ships leaving for Alaska come 5 o’clock on Saturdays and Sundays!

As someone who’s not from Vancouver or used to the sunny summer days, the tree provides great shade and a place to experience everything that encompasses a summer day in the city.

– Lynsey Dobbie, Community Garden Co-Coordinator

Pretty profound Tree Awe

This gorgeous tree climbs high to the sky between Burrard and Cypress. Running home one day from work I slowed down to take in the setting sun hitting it’s ferny inhabitants. A truly magnificent tall green being, it inspired some pretty profound Tree Awe. Walking down this entire block is a symphony of thick trunks and flourishing greenery ~ highly recommended.

– Maia L.

The March of the Ents… in the West End

“Wow, you really got that Lord of the Rings thing going on with that tree out there!”

Thus spoke my Winnipegger friend upon visiting me for the first time in my new apartment. “It looks like those roots could take over the whole block!”  Until then, I had been having trouble befriending my new apartment.  While the place itself is in an exciting location, Chilco and Comox, the primary view is of a giant white Soviet-bloc style building, and this was nonplussing me.  But there was this tree too, branches bare at that time in early March, and with so many adjustments to my new environment, I had never really looked at this beauteous, gnarly, mossy sentinel right outside my balcony.  Suddenly, awoken by my friend’s comment, this tree was inviting me to other-wordly imaginings that included The March of the Ents…and my apartment, accordingly, became a magical abode.

During our ensuing tree-human courtship, I’ve realized this tree had practical intrigue as well.  In full greenery, it offers a lovely view, blocking out many of the fishbowl apartment windows across the street.  It houses a pair of raccoons from time to time, which like to hang out in its lower branches (maximizing the cuteness, minimizing the pestilence, yes!).  Its tenacious, crazy roots braiding patterns down the concrete-lined boulevard are a daily reminder that good, growing things find a way to break through in spite of it all.  And that magic might be possible.

– Catherine B.