A yew tree that stands in the northwest corner of the Handsworth Secondary property in North Vancouver will be protected, as part of the project to rebuild the school.
The school district recently agreed to register a covenant protecting the yew tree as a condition of getting its building permit for the rebuild from the municipality.
Yews are native understory trees that are among the slowest growing and longest living trees in B.C. Yew trees can take between 250 and 350 years to reach maturity and can survive for several centuries. Between the 1960s and early 1990s, Pacific yew trees were valued for their bark, which was used in the production of taxol – an anti-cancer drug. Eventually, scientists came up with a technique for synthesizing taxol in laboratories that didn’t require Pacific yew bark.
In the case of the Handsworth yew, the tree was flagged by an arborist as part of the pre-construction check of the site, according to Lisa Dalla Vecchia, spokeswoman for the school district.
It will continue to have protected status on the property, both during and after the school rebuild.
