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Landmark effort

In no particular order, the most popular stories we write - both ongoing and in terms of readership - are about dogs, bears and trees. So, an editorial on a single tree had to come sooner or later.

In no particular order, the most popular stories we write - both ongoing and in terms of readership - are about dogs, bears and trees.

So, an editorial on a single tree had to come sooner or later.

This tree isn't even on the North Shore, though we would guess the majority of our readers have been to see it and likely have photographs of themselves inside it.

You guessed: we're talking about the Hollow Tree in Stanley Park.

The tree had been a photo opportunity for almost 125 years and many more than a million visitors until major windstorms five years ago damaged up to 10,000 trees in the park and left the venerable stump dangerously a-tilt.

In 2007, the Vancouver Parks board voted to fell the 700-year-old-or-more Western red cedar and ignited another windstorm - of opposition. But just as windstorms clear areas of forest for regrowth, the outpouring of regret and anger created the Stanley Park Hollow Tree Conservation Society, who came up with an ingenious engineering plan that was officially completed Wednesday.

With donations of cash and materials and much volunteer labour, the tree has been ingeniously yet discretely reinforced.

We thank the society for its work and hope readers will visit its website as well as revisiting the Hollow Tree.

Too bad there was no similar effort made to save the giant sequoia on Marine Drive in North Vancouver recently felled to make way for a development eponymously dubbed The Ivy.