William H.A. Willbond MSM, CD and Les Peate

DEATH OF A GIANT

The fall of our 900 year old giant of Stanley Park fame
Caused by rain and erosion – the high winds were to blame
As a seedling it grew before Genghis Khan had invaded Beijing
And before the Magna Carta was signed by the John the bad King!

Before Marco Polo in twelve seventy one
This young seedling’s life had already begun
National Geographic had featured a report on this tree
‘Twas a tourist attraction in eighteen ninety

When Christopher Columbus sailed across the sea
This Stanley Park red cedar was a pretty big tree.
It was a historical wonder – a long life of distinction
Will a seedling, planted now, survive man’s extinction?

©Copyright October 13, 2007 by William H.A. Willbond, MSM, CD

Times Colonist Photo Article of October 13, 2007
Stanley Park Loses 900-Year-Old Western Red Cedar

Stanley Park Loses 900-Year-Old Western Red Cedar

Stanley Park maintenance superintendent Eric Meagher stands next to a 900 year-old Western red cedar that he found uprooted in the park earlier this week. The tree has been featured in National Geographic and the earliest photographs taken in the park in the 1890s show people standing next to it. Meagher was driving through the park when he realized something was missing from the skyline. “I stopped my truck dead in its tracks and put on the four-way flashers so I could take a look,” he said. “I thought ‘no it couldn’t be the big cedar — that’s unbelievable.’ But when I went down the trail to Third Beach, there it was. It had come down.” Meagher said the combination of rain on Sunday, which softened the ground, plus an east wind toppled the tree. The Glenn Baglo/CanWest News Service

Your Western cedar may be tall
Compared with that, a man is small
But in the end, they both must fall!