nature – WILDSCAPING OUR NEIGHBOURHOOD SOCIETY

The (Un) Natural History of Burnaby Heights

Sometime, over 100 years ago, we logged North Burnaby and took out centuries old giants like this. We don’t know what we’ve lost, because it was gone before we were born. But, not that long ago, this was a magnificant old growth forest.

Crabtown 1912 to 1957

One hundred and twenty five years ago, Burnaby was wilderness with a dollar sign attached to it. There was a lot of old growth timber that was being logged, forest to be cleared, fish to be caught and crabs to be harvested.

Like most frontier towns, rules were few and dollars were scarce. People started building squatters homes on the North facing shore of the Burrard Inlet, where Burnaby Heights now exists.

Poor workers from the mills and other basic industries like logging and fishing started building these squatters homes in around 1912. It’s not hard to figure out why it was called Crabtown. People are still pulling thousands of crabs from the waters east of the Ironworkers’ Bridge.

An entire generation was born and raised in this community, which exhibited the pioneer spirit of invention born of necessity. Lumber was plentiful, food was there for the catching. As with most such spontaneous, unregulated communities it developed largely unnoticed and tolerated and grew to about 114 homes and 130 residents.

Then in 1957, the federal government, concerned about the encroachment on federal lands, evicted all 130 residents and tore down the homes. I suppose that was inevitable, as Burnaby was growing and regulations were put in place.

How did building mansions turn into building a refinery?

This is a photo of Overlynn mansion which can be found at the corner of Trinity Street and North Edmonds Avenue in the Heights. Below that is a view of the tank farm in the Heights.

Designed by the premier architect of the time, Samuel Maclure, Overlynn was built in 1909 for Charles J. Peter. Peter felt that the Vancouver Heights area was one of the most picturesque in the Vancouver region. It was named because it overlooked Lynn Valley to the north.

Peter was the head of the Blue Ribbon Tea Company and he was promoting the area as the next Shaughnessy.

According to some research, the average home in the Vancouver area at that time, was $1,000. Homes in Vancouver Heights were selling for $3,500.

Overlynn reportedly cost $75,000!

If you wander through the streets of Northwest Burnaby, you will find a handful of these old mansions, built over a twenty year period from 1909 to 1929. It was believed the Heights was the next big thing.

Aside – at some point between 1980s and now, Vancouver Heights was notionally split into two sections – the Vancouver side of Boundary, north of Hastings and East of the PNE is referred to as Vancouver Heights and the area east of Boundary, north of Hastings and west of Willingdon is considered Burnaby Heights. More recently, it is now referred to as the Heights.

Certainly, after all the old growth forest was logged, the views were (and are) spectacular.

So, what happened? You saw that part where I said the original building took place in a period ending in 1929. We all know what happened then. A great stock market crash, an agricultural crisis and a global trade war initiated by the Smoot Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, enacted by the USA to protect American business and farmers. You’d almost believe that people didn’t learn the lessons of history!

So, a lot of wealth disappeared as a result of the crash, which led to the Great Depression of the 1930s. Not a lot of mansions get built in a frontier town like Burnaby during a depression but a lot of jobs were lost. So, when Standard Oil proposed building a refinery on the waterfront of the Heights, the prospect of jobs was too enticing and a Faustian bargain was made. Ninety years later, we are still living with a major industrial site on some of the most valuable and picturesque real estate in Canada.

Imagine a world where, instead of a tank farm, we had a gently sloping public park that stretched to the waterfront beach, with a public pier and natural habitat. Instead of a refinery, there was a marina and more natural habitat.

We can dream, can’t we?

This is the Burnaby section of the Trans Canada Trail that goes through McGill Park in the Heights. It skirts along the Parkland Tank Farm. But it wasn’t always there. In the early ’90s, Chevron owned the Refinery and tank farm. They announced that they were going to expand the boundary of the tank farm to include most of what you see in these photos to make a bigger parking lot.

I called their office and got a visit from their environmental manager, who offered to take me to the site where they were going to build their new parking area. He pointed out this area and said “That’s where the parking lot is going.” I asked him “How do you think your neighbours will feel about turning this green space into a parking lot and fencing it off?”

He said “It doesn’t matter, we own this land.”

Wrong answer! I went back home, told my wife Angela what transpired and we got busy. Within a few days, we formed a neighbourhood group to oppose this. We called it Burnaby Residents Against Chevron’s Expansion (BRACE).

We got a lot of publicity and Chevron decided to back down. So, instead of a parking lot, we have the Trans Canada Trail.

There were many other benefits that accrued to the neighbourhood as a result of residents pushing back and asking questions. A Community Advisory Panel was formed and more than 30 years later, it’s still going. Pollution monitors were placed in the buffer zone. Most importantly, we got them to put a vapour recovery system in place at the marine loading facility and it greatly improved the air quality.

Now, it’s time to move to the next phase of converting part of the buffer zone into habitat that supports biodiversity.

So, after the old growth forest was logged, houses, roads and businesses were built, the refinery moved in, people settled into suburban life in North Burnaby. It was originally a working class neighbourhood back when blue collar workers, teachers and small business owners could afford to buy a modest home. The housing changed throughout the 20th century from 1 and 1/2 or 2 storey wood sided homes built in the ‘teens, to some arts and crafts style homes in the ’20s and ’30s and the post WWII bungalows built in the ’50s and ’60s. In the ’70s, the Vancouver Specials began being built and so on until today, with the 3.5 million dollar large homes being built.

During this period, nature was either something to be exploited, removed, or poisoned. Most natural habitat was lost. In the few areas that weren’t developed after they were logged or drained, nature has tried to stage a comeback. But into the void that was created, plants from residents’ gardens, found their way into the recovering natural areas. Plants like English Ivy, blackberry, holly trees, laurel, or morning glory found lots of space and no natural checks and invaded with alarming results. These are the plants in the accompanying photos (along with some ancient trash).

Since we didn’t know what was originally here (because it was gone before anyone currently living was born), we didn’t realize the insidious creep of invasive species. They covered the forest floor, crowding out the native plants that should have found space to grow. Those native plants supported insects – native beetles, bees and butterflies, so their absence had a rippling effect in the great web of life. Fewer bees meant fewer native plants were pollinated. Fewer butterflies meant fewer baby birds, whose diets are 83% caterpillars. And so on, up the chain.

It took decades for these invasive plants to become established to the point where people started noticing. I moved here 50 years ago from Alberta and, to me, it was a verdant natural environment. I didn’t know that holly trees were not native. Or that ivy hadn’t always smothered the forest floor. It wasn’t until I retired and had the time to pay attention to what was going on in the woods as I walked to the Trans Canada Trail that I realized there was trouble in paradise. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

So, we (WONS) are embarked on what will be an inter-generational rehabilitation of our urban environment to, once again, accommodate the natural world. So, if you’re a gardener, a birder, a nature lover – join us as we work to protect and promote biodiversity. The world will be a better place for your efforts.

September, 2025

Update on our progress, so far. This is our second year at the site and the progress is amazing. We are beating back invaders to create light and space for our native plants.

In June, we tackled blackberries and ivy as we worked our way south from the Trans Canada Trail towards Edinburgh St. The native plants we planted in the fall of 2024 are thriving and other native plants are making a comeback. The salmonberry and osoberry are fruiting and sending out new shoots.

A couple of times a week, our founder goes down to the site with a portable weedwhacker, to keep the blackberry and morning glory in check. He has observed a quadruple wave of invasive plants. The apex invader is the blackberry, and if left to its own devices, it will take over the entire planet! At the fringe of a blackberry infestation, English ivy gets established and then sends out far-reaching colonizers to take over the forest floor and climb up the trees.

When you remove those and create all of this empty real estate, morning glory will spread at an astonishingly rapid pace to overwhelm the newly created space. So, once you beat back that 3rd wave, buttercups, which have been lurking politely on the sidelines, will spread rapidly, densely and explosively.

So, unless we monitor the area frequently, the invaders will take over again.

If you have a weedwhacker and would like to help, message the site’s email at wonsocietyhq@gmail.com and join us in this noble effort.

Right now, we have plans to plant pollinator friendly plants on the verge between the Trail and our project, so instead of morning glory, blackberry and buttercup, we will have a section of native flowering plants that may include beauties like lupine, goldenrod, fireweed and asters.

The ecosystem is in crisis because the native plants are the foundation of a healthy native environment that starts with the soil, which supports the plants, which in turn provide food and shelter for native insects and other creatures. Those native plants are needed to provide an environment for birds, bees, beetles and butterflies.

The chain has been broken, the web of life – torn. So, we have taken it upon ourselves to try to repair a small part of the damage and it’s working, but we need to be relentless and we need your help.

To do so, we need you to join us, on September 20 at 11:00 a.m. at the north end of Gilmore Avenue where it intersects the Trans Canada Trail, as we go in and dig out the invasives and plant our native flowers. We also need to raise the funds to buy the plants we need, so you could contribute that way as well.

Stay tuned because great things are happening with our main project – the creation of a biodiversity park. We now have engaged a Landscape Architect and an Ecological expert who are collaborating with us in planning the site.

Featured Creature

Our featured creature for the month of March is the BARRED OWL.

The Barred Owl is a medium-to-large owl native to North America. It is named for the horizontal “barred” pattern on its chest and vertical streaks on its belly. This owl has a rounded head, dark brown eyes (unlike many other owls that have yellow eyes), and no ear tufts. Its plumage is a mix of brown, white and grey, providing excellent camouflage in forested environments.

They inhabit mature, mixed forests with plenty of cover, particularly those near water sources like swamps, marshes, rivers and lakes, and are commonly found in the eastern United States, parts of Canada, and the Pacific Northwest.

The Barred Owl’s hooting call, “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you-all?” is a classic sound of old forests and treed swamps. They are a lot easier to hear than to see.

Unlike some owls that are strictly nocturnal, Barred Owls can be active during the day, though they are most vocal and active at dawn and dusk. They are generally solitary outside of the breeding season but form strong pair bonds. They are territorial and will defend their nesting areas from other owls or predators. They are sit-and-wait predators, meaning they perch silently and scan for movement before swooping down to capture prey. Their diet is highly varied, including small mammals (mice, voles, rabbits), birds, amphibians, reptiles, insects and even fish. They are strong fliers but generally prefer short bursts of flight through dense forest rather than long-distance soaring.

Our featured creature for the month of January is the beautiful VARIED THRUSH.

The Varied Thrush is a medium-sized bird native to the forests of the Pacific Northwest, known for its striking plumage, which features a combination of slate-blue, orange, and black colors that create a visually stunning appearance. Male Varied Thrushes are dark blue-gray on the back, rich burnt-orange below with a sooty-black breastband and orange line over the eye. The wings are blackish with two orange bars and orange edging to the flight feathers. Females have the same patterns, but are paler gray-brown than males. Typically found in coniferous and mixed forests, the Varied Thrush prefers dense underbrush where it can forage for insects, fruits, and seeds. It is also known for its melodious song, which can often be heard during the breeding season, adding to its allure as one of North America’s more enchanting bird species.

Observational Experiment

So, I was listening to CBC Radio yesterday and they interviewed the renowned wildlife artist, Robert Bateman on his 94th birthday. He was talking about paying attention to what was happening in your environment. Look at the birds, observe the seasons and it will enrich your life. I have found this to be the case in my life. So, I set up an observational experiment using the Merlin app on my iPhone. It can identify birds by their songs, so it’s really useful at this time of year when we have many migratory birds coming through. There’s one observational nugget. At this time of year, you will encounter many birds that don’t live here year round. They come to your region on the way to somewhere else or they come here to nest, raise their young and then leave again in the fall. The natural world is not bound by borders and politics, but by seasons and habitat.

Anyway, the experiment was this. Go into the woods, on the off leash dog trail, east of Willingdon, near the Parkland tank farm. There’s a bench a couple of hundred yards in, where I sat to listen and observe. I turned on my Merlin app which started recording the bird songs in the near vicinity. It’s pretty dense forest, so seeing the birds is difficult, but hearing them is not. Over the course of a few minutes, Merlin picked up and identified 16 species within 50 yards of where I sat. Some of the migratory birds included the Black-headed Grosbeak, the American Goldfinch, Warbling Vireo, and Black-throated Gray Warbler.

The second part of the experiment was to go to McGill Park, a block away and sit at a bench there, surrounded by acres of grass and start recording. There, Merlin picked up 5 species, one of which was the violet green Swallow, a few of which I could see in the open sky above the tank farm. When I moved to Vancouver, Swallows were common sights in the summer, primarily the violet green and barn Swallows. Fifty years later, they are very scarce. The data backs up this observation with swallow populations plummeting by 50-90% according to the species.

So the two habitats I sampled are in the accompanying photos. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see why the difference in biodiversity. In a more abundant environment, we get greater biodiversity. In a monoculture, very little. We have over-lawned our parks and need to rewild some of the acres of grass monoculture that we have inherited from a Victorian notion of what a park should be. We need to change that way of thinking. That’s why Wildscaping Our Neighbourhood Society was formed.

Prentice Lee