If you’ve walked by the picnic area at Barnet Marine Park recently, you may have noticed a few missing trees.
That’s because the City of Burnaby has removed between 15 and 20 rotten cottonwoods.
Dave Ellenwood, the city’s director of parks and recreation, told the NOW there was a “failure” last summer when a branch fell down in the area. That incident sped up an assessment of the cottonwoods, he said.
“We did that (assessment) in the late fall and in the first few weeks of this year, and determined there were trees that needed to come out,” he said. “If a significant portion of the tree is rotten, we can’t take that risk. We’ll take the tree out.”
Ellenwood added staff will be replacing the cottonwoods with a variety of evergreens and deciduous trees that are native to B.C., with the project wrapping up in a couple weeks. The planted trees will stand four to five metres tall.
Meanwhile, a similar removal/replacement initiative is planned for Burnaby Fraser Foreshore Park next fall.
