Parks crews are harvesting a great deal of wood from Stanley Park, from the trees that have been blown down in the last wind storm. They are going to be selling this wood to fund the replacement of the trees. Vancouver blogger Darren Barefoot has a better idea though; he suggests selling it to local artisans.

Here’s my alternative idea: give the wood (or some of it, at least) to local artists and artisans. They make sculpture, furniture, knick knacks and so forth, sell their wares and share the profits with the park. There are two attractive points for the buyer: they know they’re supporting the rehabilitation of the park, and there’d be a certain cachet in owning something made out of Stanley Park wood. There’s only a limited amount of it, after all. I probably wouldn’t just donate to this cause, but I’d probably buy a cool picture frame on its behalf.