New Westminster’s tree canopy has declined by 15 per cent since 2004, but the city has a strategy aimed at growing its tree inventory.
Council has adopted an urban forest management strategy that strives to increase the tree canopy from the current 18 per cent to 27 per cent. The tree canopy refers to the area of a city that’s covered when viewed by the air.
“We recognized that trees are often managed at the periphery of city policy. We see trees every day. They define our experience in the city, but we rarely treat them as an aggregate, as an asset for the city,” said Edward Porter of Diamond Head Consulting. “One of the opportunities with the city’s urban forest management study is to look beyond trees in the city and start to look at a forest for the city.”
The urban forest management strategy includes 38 actions, including 12 priority actions, aimed at reversing the decline in the tree canopy. This would require an additional 8,500 trees to be planted on public lands and 3,300 on private lands by 2035.
The city’s urban forest benefits human health and wellness, the ecosystem and city infrastructure and energy, Porter said.
A report on the urban forest management strategy notes the tree cover in New West declined four per cent between 1994 and 2004 and by another 14 per cent from 2004 to 2013. In recent years, it’s been declining at a rate of 1.5 per cent annually.
Porter said New Westminster’s tree canopy has declined as a result of densification, urban growth and urban trees being in competition with other infrastructure and urban services.
With the loss of the tree canopy, he said, the city also loses the benefits that come with the urban forest.
The urban forest management strategy intends to protect the urban forest by increasing the canopy cover to 27 per cent citywide, introducing a tree bylaw to protect the existing trees and adapting the urban forest population and the city to a changing climate.
“We chose the 27 per cent target because it is both ambitious and achievable,” Porter said. “It represents the North American average for municipal urban forest cover.”
Along with adopting the urban forest management strategy and a new tree protection and regulation bylaw, city council has also adopted in principle the new “10,000 trees in 10 years” program.
Mayor Jonathan Cote said the city isn’t just placing the burden of tree retention on private property owners through a tree protection bylaw but is showing leadership through its goal of planting of 10,000 trees in 10 years.
“I recognize 10,000 trees in 10 years can sound like an ambitious plan, but last year the City of New York accomplished one million trees in 10 years,” he said. “I think if this council and this community really wants to recognize the value of trees, I think we need to show that support. In the end, 20 or 30 years down the road, we can really transform this community for the better. I think trees are a big part of that.”
