Vancouver Park Board

From Sapling to Street Tree

October 18, 2004 The Vancouver Park Board counts among its many duties the planting and care for the city's 130,000 street trees. This along with ongoing plantings on parks and remnant woodlands equates to the need for between 2500 to 3000 trees each year. And where do these trees come from? Nestled in the Campbell Valley about 40 kilometers from Vancouver, the Park Board's own Langley Tree Farm plays nursery to sapling specimens that one day will stand sentry on our fair city's diverse streets.

Founded in 1973, the chief goals of the nursery were to save money and time, introduce special varieties that are hard to find commercially and to wholesale trees to other municipalities. This has been achieved over the three decades of operation with the tree farm now nurturing a stock of 11,000 trees managed by two full time staff.

In all, sixty different species of trees can be found at the Langley Tree Farm, grown for their flower power, shade potential and durability. This represents a change in planting philosophy that has evolved over the years. Many Vancouverites still harken back to the days when one species of tree was planted on dozens of streets giving way to multi-block shows comprised of pink, white or cerise clouds when the cherries were in bloom. Only problem with this kind of planting was that disease or insect infestation could leave the city's stock of trees vulnerable to mass attack, and in the worse case scenario, devastation. So for the past thirty years Park Board staff have been introducing a variety of trees for a wide variety of specific locations, always trying to place the best specimen in conditions suitable to its particular cultivation requirements. In some cases this can mean having a mix of tree species on one given block which can give rise to two blooming phases for lucky residents.

A visit to the Langley Tree Farm, open to the public week days, is an ideal way to spend an afternoon. Row upon row of deciduous trees give hint to the Park Board's unique cultivation techniques amidst a truly countrified atmosphere with foot bridges fashioned from salvaged park logs and numerous birds flying overhead.

So the next time you are strolling beneath the welcome canopy of a magnificent street tree, remember where it got its gentle start in life and that - a tree grows in Langley!