The Hollow Tree

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Vancouver's most iconic structure, the Hollow Tree, a thousand-year-old shell of a Western Red Cedar that sits upon the Stanley Park Drive, has been mythologized and immortalized by a century of photographs. Millions of travelers have made pilgrimages to this tree. But in 2006, when a severe windstorm sweeps through the park, the Hollow Tree's fate hangs in the balance. Leaning precariously, the Vancouver Parks Board deems the old snag a safety hazard and votes to take it down. But a determined group of citizens from all walks of life, including engineers, arborists, and historians, band together to come up with a solution to this bizarre problem, 'How do you keep a big hollow tree on its own two feet?' This group unites to form the Hollow Tree Conservation Society. After a summer of lobbying, the Vancouver Parks Board finally allows the Society to go forward with the restoration, under one condition, that they undertake all the fundraising for the project. With little money and limited resources, what begins as a summer project turns into a year-long battle against gravity, decay, and big bureaucracy to straighten this tree back to vertical and anchor it to the ground forever. But will their efforts be enough to keep the tree standing, or will all their dreams come crashing down? As the story unfolds, evidence emerges of a much deeper history of human interventions. It becomes clear that this is not the first time human beings have stepped in to keep this Hollow Tree from falling over. Questions dangle in the air around the Hollow Tree. What does this tree stand for? Of what does it remind us? And what is really at stake if it falls?