Parks We Love: Stanley Park, Vancouver
Stanley Park (Jeff Kingma/Pixabay)
Perched on the southwestern corner of British Columbia, Vancouver is a stunning seaport city boasting a unique urban center with spectacular views of ocean, mountains, and open, green space.
Here, nature is just steps away for the Canadian city’s 675,000 residents, and local leaders are finding innovative ways to keep their municipality thriving—now and into the future. In 2011 the city launched a plan to become the greenest in the world, setting itself ambitious targets for 2020. So far, Vancouver has seen impressive progress on these goals, including a reported 56% decrease in carbon pollution from city operations, and 22% less total water consumption. Local officials have also worked hard to improve access to nature, and today all Vancouver residents live within a five-minute walk of a green space, with more than 240 public parks to choose from. The largest, Stanley Park, is also the City’s oldest, opening to the public on September 27, 1888.
Billed as Vancouver’s “first official green space,” the 1,001-acre park is one of the largest urban parks in North America, and visited by an estimated eight million people each year. Notably, the park also contains the world’s longest uninterrupted waterfront path, atop a seawall that dates back to 1917, and stretches for more than 17 miles.
Stanley Park seawall (pxhere)
Though most of the park is forested, with an estimated half a million trees, a wide variety of activities and programs are available to visitors, including an 18-hole golf course, swimming pools, waterparks, and more than 16 miles of hiking trails. For those looking for something less active, visitors can take horse-drawn carriage rides, lounge at one of three beaches, or enjoy stepping back in history aboard vintage locomotives on the Stanley Park Railway.
This spectacular and bustling oasis, sitting on a peninsula on the northwestern portion of downtown Vancouver, is almost entirely surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, but accessible on foot, by bike, by car, and on several modes of public transit, including a ferry. In 2014 it was named the “top park in the entire world,” by TripAdvisor, and remains the city’s #1 attraction on the travel website’s rankings.
“As Vancouver's first park, with its ever-blooming gardens, pristine coastal areas and roughly 500,000 cedar, fir and hemlock trees, Stanley Park has continued to live up to its ‘greenspace’ designation for almost 130 years,” tourismvancouver.com states. “For these reasons and more, this tranquil oasis is the perfect city escape.”
Stanley Park trail map (Courtesy vancouver.ca)
Perched right on the city’s edge, the park is no stranger to the effects of climate change, including rising sea levels and fierce storms. But in the face of these challenges, the community’s resilient spirit shines through. In the winter of 2006 a severe windstorm caused significant damage to the seawall, and acres of trees were leveled. The landscape of the park changed overnight. But the community jumped into action. Volunteers planted seedlings, donations poured in, and staff took the opportunity to plan and build a more resilient landscape. More than 10,000 trees were removed, and 15,000 new trees were planted. Slopes were stabilized, trails were upgraded, and forest management plans were implemented.
The park’s oldest piece of infrastructure, its more than century old seawall, has also experienced damage from storms and flooding. However, with ongoing maintenance efforts, officials say the wall "should resist climate change and serve residents and visitors for another 50 to 75 years,” continuing a unique dual role of protecting the shores and providing a beloved recreational path.
With its ease of access, numerous amenities, resilient spirit, and long history of being a community treasure, Stanley Park sets the bar high for being a place of natural wonder, and beauty for all.
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About this series: The Trustees’ One Waterfront initiative is a bold, new vision for establishing a resilient urban waterfront. Yes, the vision is big, and new for Boston, but we have the benefit of following in the footsteps of those who have paved the way. Many waterfront parks designed for climate resilience have emerged over the past few decades all along the world’s coastlines and are models to emulate and learn from. The lessons learned from these pioneering open spaces—in science, design, and beyond—have and will continue to provide The Trustees and our partners with an expansive knowledge base for planning practices as we progress toward our vision for iconic, public open spaces on the Boston Waterfront. Click here to see past posts in our ‘Parks We Love’ series.