A plan for Kitchener’s urban forest

Strategy maps out how to ensure city’s trees thrive

Therecord.com
May 7, 2018
Cathrine Thompson

Kitchener currently scrambles to respond to complaints about damaged trees, and has no coherent plan to ensure the city has a variety of trees that are healthy and can withstand the rigours of climate change and urban life.

It's the first time the city has tried to create a strategy to protect and develop its forest cover. The draft strategy, which can be seen at kitchener.ca/trees, views the city's trees as a key part of its infrastructure, just like roads and sewer pipes, because trees bring all kinds of benefits, said David Schmitt, who is leading the project.

They do everything from improve air and water quality, make Kitchener a more livable city, and increase property values by as much as 15 per cent. They create habitat for wildlife, provide shade, reduce the effects of the heat thrown off from pavement, as well as provide less obvious benefits such as reducing stress and crime.

The strategy, which was presented to city council on Monday, outlined several problems with the way the city takes care of its trees now:

• Fully 43 per cent of all the trees in the city are maples. That lack of diversity leaves the city vulnerable to pests that could wipe out a single species, just as emerald ash borer decimated the city's ash trees;

• The current tree program is reactive, addressing problems when someone complains about a downed tree, dead branch, or limbs hanging over a sidewalk or road. Staff are scrambling to address an ever-growing backlog of complaints;

• The city heard from 1,800 residents about the forest strategy. While people made it clear they appreciate trees, many said they hungered for more information.

Having a plan to manage the city's trees will go a long way to address those problems, Schmitt said. If the city has better information about the kinds of soils it has in its parks, it will plant the right trees in the right area, which will increase the chances the tree will grow to maturity, when they provide the most benefits.

It could also focus tree planting in areas with few trees, or in low-income areas that could benefit most. It could set tougher rules for protecting trees. It would focus on species that are resilient enough to withstand the more frequent droughts and violent storms that climate change will bring.

"In the old days we would just go out and plant trees," Schmitt said. "We have to think about things long-term, and just make better decisions, so we don't have 40 per cent of our trees just one species."

Kitchener's tree canopy covers about 26 per cent of the total land area across the city, better than Mississauga and London, Ont., about the same as Toronto, but much lower than New York City, which has a 36 per cent tree canopy.

Because 54 per cent of trees in Kitchener are on private land, the strategy will look at ways other cities encourage tree planting on private land, through subsidies, community stewardship programs and so on.

Options on how much to spend on the strategy will come in 2019, but the document does warn that implementing the plan will require new investments, and not spending the money can mean higher costs later for things like tree removal and replanting after storms.

Council enthusiastically supported the proposed strategy, noting that a recent survey by Environics showed that 65 per cent of residents see the environment as a top priority for the city.

The public can comment on the draft strategy until June 29. Council will vote on a final strategy in early 2019.