Newly Released Records Show What Happened After More Than 100 Trees Were Felled at Mount Seymour
In Fall 2025, Mount Seymour Resort cleared vegetation and felled an estimated 100 or more trees in Mount Seymour Provincial Park, according to a preliminary BC Parks site-visit report. Although the draft report described significant natural-resource impacts and said the work conflicted with BC Parks’ conservation mandate, the ministry later determined it was authorized trail maintenance and found no non-compliance.
A draft of the report prepared by BC Parks Conservation Specialist Kym Welstead in November 2025 was released under British Columbia’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. In it, Welstead outlines findings from a field assessment. Welstead’s report says it had “been brought to our attention” that clearing had occurred near Mystery Lake, where it said trees of varying ages had been cut, including a tree that a complainant estimated to be about 150 years old. The report raised concern that disturbance in the lake’s riparian zone could affect habitat used by amphibians.
The records include complaints from members of the public, among them North Vancouver guide and outdoor educator Brent Hillier, who had raised concerns about resort activity in the park over several years.
“I’ve been documenting damage to the Seymour backcountry environment and infrastructure by the ski resort for eight years,” Hillier told explore. “This was the most significant damage to date.”
Mount Seymour Resort said the work was authorized trail maintenance under its park-use permit. In a statement emailed to explore, they said: “Under Mt Seymour’s Park Use Permit, the ski area is required to maintain existing ski and snowshoe trails during the summer/fall period for the purpose of skiing, snowboarding and snowshoeing in the winter. The requirement is to maintain safe access to existing ski/snowshoe trails by providing regular maintenance in the form of brush clearing, maintaining drainage and surface conditions to the original width of the ski trails.
“In the autumn of 2025, as a part of Mt Seymour’s trail maintenance work, it provided brush cutting on the Mt Seymour Main Trail, Mystery Lake Trail and Upper Unicorn Trail. Brush clearing work had not been completed in these areas for an extended period of time, not meeting the ideal cadence of being completed every two to three years. Moving forward, clearing will be performed every two to three years, as per the Park Use Permit requirements.”
An internal BC Parks email said the wider route could benefit uphill and downhill users. The staff member also noted that the resort had previously raised concerns about unticketed park visitors descending its ski runs because of potential liability.
“Initially, BC Parks was concerned that the activity was beyond what was authorized by Mt. Seymour Resorts’ Park Use Permit, but upon review, it was confirmed that it was authorized,” a statement emailed to explore by the Ministry of Environment and Parks explained. “The reason for the initial concern was due to the fact the area where the vegetation clearing had occurred had not been cleared by Mt. Seymour Resorts for a number of years.”
The ministry said the trail in question, commonly referred to as the Main Seymour Trail or Alpine Trail, is identified within the permit area and has been maintained and groomed by MSR to support multiple recreational user groups.
The Ministry of Environment and Parks told explore that there were no non-compliances associated with the activity, and that they will continue to work collaboratively with Mt. Seymour Resorts on its trail maintenance practices to ensure more shared awareness about these activities in the future.
BC Parks said its operations staff and conservation specialists are also developing best management practices intended to minimize future vegetation impacts and will more clearly define maintenance standards, oversight and communication procedures.
The resort confirmed this approach. “Moving forward, Mt Seymour Resorts will provide BC Parks with a brush-cutting plan for all existing ski trails and for those trails that have not been cut for multiple years, BC Parks and Mt Seymour Resorts agree to review and deploy the necessary assessments. Mt Seymour’s goal is to provide brush cutting maintenance on all trails within a three-year rotation.”
Joe Foy, Protected Areas Campaigner with the British Columbia office of the Wilderness Committee, still has questions, particularly about the tree near Mystery Lake that a complainant described as approximately 150 years old.
“Felling individual trees should only be done in the interest of public safety or to protect infrastructure and then only with the proper park permit,” said Foy. “I would hope and expect that BC Parks would enforce the rules and give the public a full report on what is happening with tree felling and what actions BC Parks has taken.”
Foy is also concerned about what this incident says about Mount Seymour Resort’s expansion plans. Announced earlier this year, the resort wants to extend its footprint by roughly 100 hectares, most of that within the boundaries of Mount Seymour Provincial Park.
“[We’re] wary of private commercial interests getting a foothold in provincial parks because there will always be pressure to expand their footprint—which is what is happening here,” said Foy.
The proposed 60-year resort expansion would increase the number of ski lifts from four to 14. The number of ski trails would more than double, from 41 to 90, mostly in higher elevation areas currently used by backcountry skiers and snowshoers. According to the resort, this expansion would help them deal with the impacts of climate change.
“The plan requests a boundary extension to accommodate those lifts, they both reach for higher ground and a little bit further back,” Mount Seymour Resorts president and general manager Eddie Wood told the CBC earlier this year. “So a more consistent snow base.”
Some are worried that the expansion would reduce recreational access for backcountry users and could impact the ecology of the park, which explore covered in a story published earlier this year.
For Joe Foy, the 2025 tree clearing only amplifies his concerns about old-growth forests within proposed resort expansion.
“Seymour Provincial Park has federally designated spotted owl critical habitat and also provincial old-growth priority deferral areas,” he said. “The resort expansion could very well impact the forests in these designations, making them less useful as wildlife habitats.”
Foy says that even if the trees are left standing, the noise from the expanded resort could have a major impact on nesting spotted owls, an endangered species protected under Canada’s Species at Risk Act. Impacts like that, he said, could raise questions about conservation in the park.
“BC is already coming under fire for including areas in their protected area accounting that are not really protected—like some provincial wildlife habitat areas,” said Foy. “But the Seymour resort expansion proposal begs the question—is Seymour Provincial Park still a protected area?”
The resort says they already have a plan to ensure these areas remain protected. “Mt Seymour Resorts is committed to responsible development and operations that are aligned with the Park’s ecological values while expanding accessible and family-friendly outdoor recreation opportunities for Vancouver/Metro Vancouver,” said the resort.
To do that, the resort explained, they plan to hire a Registered Professional Forester and work with BC Parks to “develop forest stand-specific treatments designed to preserve the structural complexity and ecological function that define old-growth character: canopy continuity, large woody debris and multi-layered understory.”
And when it comes to new ski runs, the resort says it “will prioritize gladed skiing over the development of cleared trails” and that “gladed areas will preserve veteran old-growth trees.”
For Steve Jones, a long-time backcountry advocate and the founder of the North Shore Dawn Patrol Advocacy group, this latest news reinforces his concern. “We must have an opportunity to create a management plan for the park so that there is an opportunity for the public to decide on the right mix of activities inside the park before considering how and if the expansion of a commercial ski area aligns with those priorities,” he said.
BC Parks describes park management plans as being “developed to outline the vision and direction for a park or protected area.” According to their website, Mount Seymour Provincial Park has neither an approved nor an in-development park management plan.
Jones called the process of moving the resort proposal forward without a park plan “backwards.” Especially, he said, in the wake of the tree-cutting revelations.
A public comment period for the proposed resort expansion was launched in late May. Initially scheduled for 30 days, the timeline was extended. The public now has until July 24 to submit their comments on the proposed resort expansion.
