The Hollow Tree

The Hollow Tree is the snag (hollow stump) and lower trunk of a 700+ year old Western Red Cedar in Stanley Park, located in Vancouver, BC's downtown.

The tree is often considered Vancouver's First Tourist Attraction, and is known for the cavernous hollow at the base of the stump. When Stanley Park was opened to the public in 1888, the Hollow Tree quickly became a focal point as visitors would frequent the site of the Hollow Tree to have themselves and their families photographed next to, or inside, the vast opening.

The Hollow Tree is synonymous with the towering grandeur of Stanley Park itself and serves as a testament to a time before Western settlement when great untouched giants, hundreds of years old, dominated the entire Coastal area. Many Vancouver residents have had their picture taken in the Hollow Tree; the landmark has served as a powerful symbol for the coexistence of humans and the stunning but fragile local biosphere, and as a humbling yardstick for the brevity of human history.

A slow degradation of the structural support of the soils at the base of the tree was exacerbated by the strain from the extreme wind storms of 2006 which devastated Stanley Park, and currently the tree lists at an 11-degree angle. The Vancouver Park Board, who manage Stanley Park, determined that the Tree presented a falling hazard to park visitors in its 2007 condition, and in April 2008, the removal of the tree was approved by the Board.

The Stanley Park Hollow Tree Conservation Society has developed a conceptual design and performed much of the preliminary work to right the Hollow Tree and to brace it in perpetuity for future generations of Vancouver residents and visitors alike to enjoy with the same sense of wonderment, awe, and humbling perspective that 120 years of previous visitors have drawn from the Hollow Tree.