Central Park was once a naval reserve set aside as a source of masts and spars for ships of the Royal Navy.

[2] The park was named to honour Mrs. Sarah (Christine) Oppenheimer, the wife of Vancouver's second mayor, who was born in New York City.

[3] Central Park's primary attraction is the large proportion of its land reserved as a well-preserved temperate rainforest ecosystem, with numerous walking trails.

A fitness circuit was installed during the time period between 2012 and 2014 in the park replacing the old wooden exercise apparatus to metal and rubber ones.

[4] Swangard Stadium, the former home for the Vancouver Whitecaps soccer team, is located at the northwest corner of Central Park.

Visitors often use this trail for physical activity purposes and it is annually used for the Terry Fox Run for the City of Burnaby.

Central Park's large wooded areas are temperate rainforest, a remnant of Vancouver's original forest ecosystem.

As these stumps decay they provide habitat and nutrients for the young plants, while protecting them from the acidic conditions on the forest floor.

The lower lake has schools of brown bullhead, a fish in the catfish order, which can sometimes be viewed from the bridge by the golf shop.

Salmonberry, thimbleberry, huckleberry and trailing blackberry provide edible fruit for humans and animals, and together with hollyhock make up the shrub understory.