Cathedral Grove is supposed to be a Class A park

Dear Editor,

What is the purpose of a Class A Provincial Park like Cathedral Grove (MacMillan Park)? Is it to turn trees into tall lifeless poles?

According to BCParks in a Class A park: “no natural resource may be granted, sold, removed, destroyed, damaged, disturbed or exploited unless authorized by a valid park use permit.”

I’ve counted at least a dozen of these zombie trees inside the park boundaries. The Ministries of Transportation and Environment and our MLA need to sit down and decide whether we want Cathedral Grove to be something we can showcase again at the Olympics, or if by then the majestic trees that were projected high into the air of BC Place for the world to see and one day visit in real life will just be a distant memory, cut because of a ridiculously small chance that a member of the public is hurt by a falling branch or tree. We could use the road barriers that were installed to close the road during extreme events and avoid any damage to any vehicles and further delays as well.

Natural spaces are naturally dangerous at times. Destroying our natural resources in a park is illegal. MacMillan Park needs to be kept whole regardless of the highway.

Sincerely

Chris Alemany

PS.

Last week, I sent a comprehensive email to my MLA Josie Osborne and the Ministers of Transportation and of the Environment.

Here it is:

Dear Josie — Minister Osborne — and other Ministers,

I am shocked and deeply saddened at the continued topping of trees within Cathedral Grove/MacMillan Provincial Park.

We have to really ask ourselves in a park as small as this one, whether “danger tree” assessments should take priority over the very purpose of the legislated “protected area”.

I have many many comments but I will try to focus this email to real actions and answerable questions. For my commentary, and for pictures, you can see them attached and at the link at the bottom on the social web. These images were all taken on April 2nd 2026 after the topping of trees on April 1, 2026.

According to bcparks.ca Class A parks: “are lands dedicated to the preservation of their natural environments for the inspiration, use and enjoyment of the public.”

Action:

In Schedule C of the Protected Areas Act, Little Qualicum Falls Park *does not* have an exclusion for the Highway 4 right of way.

however, for MacMillan Park it includes:

“except the right of way of Highway No. 4, shown on Plan 5 Tube 696 deposited in the Crown Land Registry.”

My request is for the Highway 4 exception to be deleted or that the area of Macmillan Park and Little Qualicum Falls Park be merged to form one park without the exception for the right of way of Highway 4.

Further, I request that all ‘danger tree’ assessments and actions be postponed until a public consultation is held to determine the purpose and goal of the park with information for the public including from the questions below.

Questions:

1) What is the ‘danger’ being identified in these trees. Can you share a report?

2) Please identify the root causes of how the trees developed into a ‘danger’. Is it encroachment of private timber blocks increasing exposure to wind? Is it drought and climate change? Visitor impacts, traffic impacts, or is it a change in policy, expectation, legal change, or something else?

3) Since the inception of Highway 4 around 1920, how many injuries have resulted from falling debris or trees within the park?

4) What is the statistical probability of someone being struck by either a branch or tree while driving through or visiting the park?

5) How old are the trees that have been topped?

6) Were the trees living or dead when they were topped?

7) What is the purpose of MacMillan Park as a “Class A” Provincial Park?

8) What is the goal of MacMillan Park as a tourism destination?

9) How does the ‘danger tree’ classification and mitigation activity achieve the purpose and goal set out in the previous questions?

10) How many trees have been topped in the past 20 years between the park boundary on the west end of Cameron Lake and the forestry road at Cameron River?

11) What is the current estimate for the number of trees over 100 years old within a 1km radius of the parking lot and visitor area of MacMillan Park?

12) How many trees were topped this year (2026).

13) How many untopped trees are within 10 metres of the edge of the pavement of Highway 4.

14) At the current rate of topping, how long before all trees within 10 metres of Highway 4 are topped?

Imagine if we treated every park as a safety liability rather than a preservation area. Would people be allowed to go to Della Falls? Would people be able to walk on Long Beach during a rip-tide?

We don’t stop the falls or block the tides, but apparently we top the trees.

I was at the Opening Ceremonies of the 2010 Olympics with my wife and daughter. One of my proudest moments as a resident of Port Alberni was when the trees of Cathedral Grove were displayed and celebrated in all their beauty and grandeur. There was a depiction of people looking up in wonder at the tall trunks and canopy. That canopy has always included snags and broken tops. Those are just as much a part of the ecosystem and life of the forest as the moss and the ferns on the ground.

The forest has never included headless zombies cut by soulless lawyers, until today.

Sincerely,

Chris