“I think that I shall never see, A poem as lovely as a tree.”

Joyce Kilmer’s 1913 poem, “Trees” describes the way that many people feel about trees. Valued for the natural cooling effect of the shade they provide, their addition of oxygen to the environment and the general improvement to the quality of an urban landscape, most people prefer the presence of trees in spite of the mess made by falling leaves, damage from falling branches and trunks, damage to infrastructure by root systems and getting in the way of development.

Native and Introduced Species

Richmond’s native tree species are adapted to a high water table and peat and silt loam soil. The most common native species in Richmond before non-Indigenous settlement were Shore Pine, Sitka Spruce, Pacific Crabapple, Willow, Black Cottonwood and Black Hawthorn. These trees, many little more than shrubs, lined the shores of Lulu and Sea Islands, shaded the paths of sloughs and grew in groves in areas of prairie grasslands. An ancient beach berm along the west side of Lulu Island, once lined with native crabapple trees, is followed today by the Crabapple Ridge bike route. A large conifer at Garry point, most likely a spruce, was used as a navigation marker, guiding ships and boats into the channel at the mouth of the Fraser River until it was washed away in the flood of 1891.

Trees native to Richmond are not generally long-lived, 100 to 300 years at most, and often die before maturity due to bog fires, diseases and other reasons. Native tree species, important to the natural history of Richmond, are protected by the acquisition of land by the City and by the declaration of environmentally sensitive areas, the emphasis being the preservation of forested areas and allowing natural regeneration rather than the protection of individual trees.

Around 1860, non-Indigenous settlers began arriving in present day Richmond. Wanting farmland, they cleared native vegetation and dyked and drained the land. They also planted non-native trees which provided shade and shelter for livestock, protected crops from wind and produced fruit and nuts. Non-native trees planted by settlers or later residents of Richmond, depending on their age, size, species, setting, landmark, ecological value, aesthetics, and condition are often be considered to be heritage trees or trees of significance.

Protecting Trees

Early in 1987, with an eye towards preservation, the City sponsored a Tree Contest to make use of citizen’s local knowledge of possibly significant trees. Ads in the Richmond Review invited people to submit an entry form with a photograph and location of trees in Richmond which they thought might win in one of four categories, oldest tree, tallest tree, rarest tree and most interesting tree. A $100 prize was awarded for the winner in each category. About 100 entries and photographs of trees from all over town were submitted during the month-long contest which was judged by the City’s Environmental Control Officer and a professional Forester.

Winner of the oldest tree was a Giant Sequoia on No.4 Road which was 104 years old at the time. Honorable Mention went to another Sequoia at Cambie and No.4 Road which was 95 years old. The tallest tree winner was a Douglas Fir at Chatham and First Ave. which was 114 feet tall, Honorable Mention was a Hemlock on Garden City Road at 103 feet.

Rarest tree was an Ontario Sugar Maple on Sexsmith Road, planted in 1910 by a member of the Sexsmith Family. Honorable Mention in that category was a Fig Tree on Glenacres Drive. The prize for the Most Interesting Tree was won by a Chinese Dawn Redwood on Alexandra Road. The Honorable Mention went to a Pear Tree near General Currie School with four varieties of fruit grafted to it.

A few years later the City hired a Landscape Architect to create Richmond’s first professionally prepared list of Heritage Trees. The Consultant identified 127 significant trees or groves of trees, a list that was enhanced by the collection of historical data by other consultants and a citizen’s advisory committee. All of this groundwork was intended to lead to a way to preserve trees of significance, a challenging prospect considering the subjective nature of determining exactly what criteria identifies a Heritage tree. Attempts at protecting specific trees with bylaws or by heritage designation proved to be impractical and today those protections have been superseded by Tree Protection Bylaw 8057 which offers much broader protection to all trees 20cm or greater diameter as measured 1.4 m above the ground. Even with this bylaw it has to be recognized that at some point in a tree’s life they can get old, diseased, get costly and difficult to maintain and become hazardous and need to be removed. There is also a limit to what a city can do to with respect to tree preservation on private property.

A Richmond Tree

As an example of a tree of significance, let’s focus on one that has been in the public eye since it was planted around 1920. After the end of World War One the former Minoru Racetrack reopened as Brighouse Park Racetrack.

Michael Wilkinson Brighouse purchased the racetrack property and made several changes, improving and enlarging the grandstands, clubhouse and grounds and planting a number of trees. Quite a few of those trees are still standing but one in particular stands out, planted on its own rather than in a group and in an area that has been photographed many times over the years.

This tree, an American Elm (Ulmus americana), has stayed rooted in the same spot for about 100 years, while the City has changed around it. Once a small trackside shade tree it has seen the demise of horse racing in Richmond, had a road built past it separating it from some of its fellow racetrack trees, shaded the back of the Richmond Twin Theatres, the Richmond Centre parkade and now is dwarfed by high-rise buildings behind it.

The American Elm tree is located on City property and can be more easily maintained and protected by the City than trees located on private property. Many trees considered to be of heritage value have been lost to disease, out growing their locations, age or safety but many have also been saved through the work of private citizens and City staff.

Hopefully this tree and others like it will be preserved so that future generations can appreciate their beauty as well as their significance to the heritage of our City. As Joyce Kilmer closed his poem,

“Poems are made by fools like me, But only God can make a tree”