Old friend must fall to make room for revamped Centennial Square

In a city that loves its trees, another of its favourites is slated to come down to make way for improvements to downtown infrastructure. Given the species’ propensity for enormous growth and longevity, whoever planted the large sequoia tree on what was then Cormorant Street did so, seemingly as an afterthought to the modernist design of the civic plaza in 1964.

The name “sequoia” was coined in 1847 by Stephen L. Endlicher, an Austrian linguist, botanist, and director of Vienna’s botanical garden. Endlicher used the word to describe the plant’s genus but also to honour Sequoyah, the man who created the written form or syllabary of the Cherokee language.

Local tree lover Gregg Keop has mapped the locations of a number of giant sequoias around Victoria. Perhaps because of its relatively small size, the tree in question does not appear on his interactive site.

Derrick Newman, Victoria’s newly minted director of parks, recreation, and facilities confirmed to the council that the design that was before it, “would not be able to be achieved by retaining the tree.”

'Wrong tree for the wrong space'

“This is a case where the—it’s the wrong tree for the wrong space,” he said referring to the sandy soil in which it was planted and its position on top of asphalt that was formerly Cormorant.

Already a location of significance, Victoria councillors are by their unanimous approval on July 4, greenlighting the proposed park design they hope will create a newly vital, functional, inclusive, multi-purpose space where one is badly needed.

To do that, the sequoia has to go.

The tree is planted on a raised green and its root system is “growing towards utility services, including a BC Hydro vault, numerous hydro lines, telecom, and a water main underneath the square, said Newman. “Any attempt to level the space to make it more accessible “will impact the health of the tree and impede infrastructure,” he said.

Addition by subtraction

Removing the tree also has a functional consideration.

For the designers, removing the tree represents an important Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPED) element in the project.

“Safety and security is a top concern for the city, and one of the primary challenges is sight lines. If you can't see through to the centre of the square, you don't know what's happening there,” said Jill Robinson, principal, and landscape architect with DIALOG Design, the Vancouver-based company that won the $750K contract to redesign the square.

The removal of the sequoia opens a sight line so that someone standing on Douglas will be able to see right through to the centre of the square.

Such a sight line makes patrolling and surveilling Centennial Park easier for bylaw and police officers and may deter people from engaging in unlawful activity.

Not the first area tree to meet a notable end

For some, the removal of the tree won’t be popular. Victoria tree lovers have already lost some other important “friends” in recent years.

Only roughly 200 of the 600 London plane trees planted in 1921 along Shelbourne from PKOLS Park to Bay remain to commemorate the deaths of Greater Victoria soldiers who died in the Second World War.

In 2012, one of the last remaining original trees growing along Dallas at the Ogden Point strip was felled by developers.

The landmark “windswept” horse chestnut tree fondly called the Narnia Tree or the Harry Potter Tree by residents was cut down in 2019 to make room for a new bike lane and the sewer pipeline along Dallas.

In April, residents in Oak Bay gathered along Beach Drive to pay their last respects to an iconic oak tree near the marina.

It will be replaced 14 times over

The Centennial Square sequoia won’t be replaced by a more species-appropriate option, however, a number of new trees will be planted in the new plaza.

“We are going to plant a new box of trees and formal collection of urban scale street trees that won't block the views,” Robinson said.

The designers are “optimizing the environment for the addition of 14 new trees in that one alone by providing planting and soil cells that allow us to improve the growing condition for these urban scale trees, but also protect important infrastructure that is in the area that's currently in conflict with the existing sequoia tree,” Robinson said.

Hammond extends tree a helping hand ... to no avail

Coun. Stephen Hammond who revealed he had had an extensive and expensive personal experience with a horse chestnut tree on his own property, made the most weather in the chamber about the possibilities of potentially saving the tree.

When he asked what would happen to the tree if the park revitalization project wasn’t moving forward, the city’s Newman explained that, although the city would continue to monitor the tree’s health, its root systems presented a threat to BC Hydro and its demise was a foreseeable inevitability.