Guelph tree canopy focus of proposed staff additions

Guelphmercury.com
Sept. 29, 2015
By Rob O’Flanagan

Managing the emerald ash borer infestation is taking up time that could be dedicated to advancing other components of Guelph's urban forest management plan, a city report states.

An additional arborist and a full-time inspector arborist are needed to see to the needs of the city's urban canopy and hasten progress on the plan. Four staff members have already been added as part of the 20-year plan that was adopted by city council in 2012. Action on the plan's 22 recommendations began a year late.

The report recommends that the hiring of the additional arborist and inspector arborist be included in the 2016 city budget, with a financial impact of $200,000 on that budget. The inspector arborist position is needed to carry out over 2,000 annual tree inspections. That number is a moving target due to emerald ash borer, the report indicates.

The plan has an ambitious goal of doubling the city's tree canopy from 20 per cent to 40 per cent, a goal that will be at least temporarily hampered by the loss of infested ash trees.

The plan is based on the belief, and the mounting evidence that trees, green spaces and nature are essential "to the mental and physical well-being of individuals, and to social well-being of the community," the report states.

Progress has been made on the plan's 22 recommendations, with 13 having been slated for 2014 or earlier. Six of those 13 have been "substantially complete, five are ongoing or partially achieved, and two are pending," the report states.

Achievements to date include the building of a technical/professional staff through the addition of four new positions, the creation of an urban forest advisory committee, and the completion of the emerald ash borer plan, the implementation of which is now in its second year.

The city also responded to the December, 2013 ice storm, the most tree-damaging of its kind in a generation, and made significant advances on the tree inventory, according to the report. As of the end of 2013, just 12,000 records of trees were included in the inventory. Now, there are 34,000, representing an estimated one-third on the entire inventory of trees in the inventory.

There are about 7,000 ash trees that will have to be safety cut down and removed, representing a definite setback for the overall canopy.