Our urban trees are worth big bucks

YorkRegion.com
June 12, 2014
Marney Beck

Our tree canopy is in its full spring glory. Ornamental cherries, lilacs and locust trees have filled the air with lovely scents and our streets are lined with trees and bushes boasting that new, fresh green colour that is so welcome after a dull, grey winter.

But if you look closer, as I do on my daily walks with the family dog, you’ll see tree stumps cut right down to ground level and new cuts on older trees, showing the scars of the fateful ice storm of Dec. 22.

Our tree canopy has taken a huge hit, especially in southern York municipalities.

Everywhere reminders of the icy damage can be seen.

My Richmond Hill back yard is far more open to the sun now, with some very high broken limbs on 100-year-old trees still dangling like proverbial swords of Damocles over our deck and a back neighbour’s parking area.

Town parks boast lovely trees looking healthy and strong, but in between you can see some that are dead and dying. The most dangerous have long since been removed, but there are still many trees that need pruning or remedial attention all across our communities.

Just think how many damaged trees there are in the Oak Ridges Moraine, that swath of protected forests, lakes and streams that rolls across the centre of York Region, reaching into all our towns and cities.

Why do trees matter, you might wonder?

If Toronto’s lush canopy of trees are worth about $7 billion to the local economy, as TD Bank suggested in a report released this week, imagine how much the trees in our less developed, greener York Region are worth.

Trees sure matter to the City of Vaughan. The ice storm affected approximately 32,500 trees on city property, not including private property. In recognition of the impact of the December ice storm, the city has been giving homeowners in every ward free trees.

Four different species of native tree saplings and shrub seedlings — red oak, maple, red osier dogwood and white spruce — have been handed out and Thornhill’s ward 5 is one of the last to get the free trees.

So if you live in that ward, on June 22 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., head to Garnet A. Williams Community Centre, 501 Clark Ave. W. and remember, it’s while supplies last.

Markham, too, has been concerned about ice storm damage, stating that 7,000 street trees alone were wiped out in December. The city is currently working to remove severely damaged trees and stumps and aims to replant about 500 trees this fall.

Why all the fuss about a bunch of trees?

Urban forests are more than just pretty scenery, commented TD bank’s chief economist Craig Alexander this week. The bank’s report said trees are an important aspect of human health and quality of life.

Trees help ease the burden on towns and cities of managing snow and rain and also remove about 25 per cent of all emissions expelled by various industries in a given municipality.

York’s trees soak up the pollution created by millions of vehicles and help manage temperature, both by blocking cold winds in winter, but also keeping our communities cooler in summer.

Right now my back yard flowers are loving the extra sunshine they are getting because of the huge tree limbs absent overhead.

But in the next hot, humid heatwave, I’m sure our family will be pining for the protective shade and shelter of the trees taken one icy night in December.