Despite invasive species and severe weather damage, Guelph’s urban forest is holding fairly steady with a 23 per cent canopy covering.
That’s pretty much the way it’s been since 2013 when city council of the day approved the Urban Forest Management Plan (UFMP) … of course the plan’s goal is 40 per cent.
While there have been many successes that have prevented the canopy cover from decreasing in recent years, city forestry officials and citizen tree lovers agree there’s a long way to go.
“What we’ve been able to do is to successfully mitigate the loss of canopy and the risk to the public,” said Timea Filer, urban forestry technologist for the city. “We’ve been able to do that really well and it will continue.”
According to a recent city staff report, Guelph’s tree canopy provides an estimated $9.7 million in environmental benefits, including $1.9 M in home energy savings (shade, blocking winter winds, etc.); removes approximately 156 tonnes of pollutants and 6,400 tonnes of carbon dioxide; and provides stormwater management that saves nearly 400,000 cubic metres of runoff per year.
What’s been lost, for the most part, are mature trees which offer greater canopy coverage than the young ones that are typically planted in their place. The biggest culprit is one most people are familiar with – the emerald ash borer. This invasive Asian insect attacks and kills Ash trees, reducing the city’s overall canopy as well as posing public dangers regarding falling trees and limbs.
The city is about halfway to removing 4,000 ash trees from along streets and in parks. It expected to take a couple more years to finish that work. Trees being removed are replaced on a one-for-one basis, in most circumstances.
“We’ve also removed close to 5,000 ash trees in some of our natural areas. That will also continue. There’s likely a few thousand to remove there as well,” Filer said, referring to natural environment areas such as Mitchell Woods Park and Ellis Creek Park.
“Even though we’ve lost canopy cover, as an example in the natural areas, there are other trees in the canopy. We haven’t ended up with vast open spaces.”
While it’s “understandable” the city hasn’t made progress on growing the canopy during the past several years, it’s still “disappointing,” said Sue Reitschin of Guelph Urban Forest Friends.
“Even keeping it at 23 per cent … it’s a sign that the forestry department is working flat-out to try and stay ahead of all the tree loss,” she said. “It really speaks to the fact we’re lost in so many areas. It’s going to be very hard to get up to 40 per cent.”
A major obstacle to reaching that goal, she suggested, is the provincially mandated population growth and intensification of built-up areas. Trees are being cut down to make way for new or expanded development projects. Though they are replaced, those replacements are not mature trees.
“All of a sudden people realize the big trees are gone,” she said of intensification projects. “Big urban trees are going to be hard to find except in parks in the newer areas.”
James Taylor, president of Trees for Guelph, agrees development is making it difficult to grow the canopy.
“The city is becoming denser and there’s more development within its boundaries, which eliminates a lot of plantable space. You can’t plant where there’s a building or a parking lot or street, so the opportunity for planting is diminishing,” he said.
Trees for Guelph has a representative on the city’s UFMP advisory committee and is supportive of municipal efforts, especially the goal of 40 per cent canopy cover.
“It’s possible but it would have to involve an incredible amount of tree planting with private landowners as well as the city, as well as corporate properties to cooperate to reach any kind of goal like that,” Taylor noted.
His association, run by volunteers, regularly organizes community tree-planting events as well as student plantings on school properties. Taylor estimates they’ve helped plant 160,000 trees in the past 30 years.
Those efforts have been hindered by the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in the spring planting program being cancelled. However, a series of three Saturday community plantings are coming up, running 9:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m.:
* Sept. 26 at Clair Road, just west of Bishop Macdonell Catholic High School
* Oct. 3 at Howden Crescent Park, along the west side of the soccer pitch
* Oct. 17 at O’Connor Lane Park (west side Swift Crescent -Fuller Drive entrance)
“ Of course we’ll be limited to 25 volunteers at any one time,” Taylor said. “We won’t get very many trees in this year. Our goal is maybe 1,000.”
During a typical year, Trees for Guelph aids in the planting of 10,000 to 20,000 trees.
While the goal of having 40 per cent tree canopy coverage throughout Guelph was included in the UFMP, city officials aren’t sure that’s the right number for the city. Filer said it will take some modelling to figure out the right mix.
“It really all has to be looked at comprehensively,” she said. “I would rather have 35 per cent canopy cover knowing that it’s healthy, it’s providing excellent benefits to the community versus 40 per cent where we’re struggling to maintain it, it’s not healthy, there’s a lot of risk, a lot of older trees we’re having trouble maintaining. There’s a lot involved. It’s rather complex.”
In addition to battling Emerald Ash borer and the impacts of severe weather, the first phase of the UFMP has involved putting several pieces in place to support healthy canopy growth. Those include things like pulling different departments together on tree-related issues and establishing policies that make trees a priority, explained Gene Matthews, the city’s manager of park operations and forestry.
“The community of Guelph is very much engaged in our urban forest. They very much agree with the importance of a healthy and vibrant urban forest,” he said. “We have had a lot of success with the initial phase of the Urban Forest Management Plan. There’s still a lot of work to do that we need to focus on.”
Next up, the UFMP calls for increased monitoring to gauge the effectiveness of efforts to maintain and grow the canopy and build on community collaboration, enhanced tree bylaws, hiring additional staff related to forestry, and more.
The UFMP is a 20-year plan.
