City of Mississauga targeting tree diversification
Six species make up most of city's tree population

Mississauga.com
Sept. 29, 2017

Forest cover in urban centres across Canada has been declining over the past 20 years, but the City of Mississauga falls in line with Tree Canada’s recommended target.

Mississauga has an urban forest canopy cover of about 15 per cent, which is unevenly distributed across the city, according to the City’s 2014 Urban Forest Strategy.

“One of the areas they’ve identified for improvement is they want to increase their urban forest cover,” said Paul Jorgenson, manager of communications for Tree Canada.

“The other thing is species diversification. It’s one thing to have a lot of trees, but you don’t want it to be a monoculture.”

Tree Canada points out that six species account for 40 per cent of Mississauga’s street and park trees. The goal is to have no one species represent more than five per cent of the tree population.

Most of Mississauga’s trees are in good health, but are smaller in stature.

These figures are brought into the limelight as Tree Canada celebrates National Forest Week up until Saturday, Sept. 30. Tree Canada is celebrating its 25th anniversary on Wednesday, Sept. 27, which is also recognized as National Tree Day.

To mark the occasion, Tree Canada planted its 82 millionth tree in the country.

Various challenges continue to affect Canada’s urban forests. They may range from climate change to population density.

As well, invasive species such as the Emerald Ash Borer and Alberta Mountain Pine Beetle are causing more damage than they did in years past.

“There’s some really nasty insects and other tree killers that traditionally, their populations are kept in check by cold weather,” Jorgenson said. “That doesn’t happen anymore.”

To help nurture or safeguard existing tree cover, Jorgenson advises Canadians not to move firewood from one area to another, across the city or region, since it’s considered one of the best ways of transporting invasive species.

He encourages Canadians to plant trees on their own property, reach out to city councillors in regards to urban green projects and also capitalize on grants given out by Tree Canada to various community groups wishing to plant trees.