[CANUFNET] Water and the Growing Urban Canopy

[Jp Warren]

Toronto is set to double the size of its canopy. Ottawa's announcement  
of 100,000 trees planted over the next four years as part of the  
National Tree Planting Challenge, and the UNEP's Billion Tree Campaign  
are important and exciting initiatives.

In order to water these trees while not increasing the fossil fuels  
burned to operate municipal pumps (pumps consuming a very high amount  
(50 to 60%) of typical municipal energy requirements) programs such as  
the NGO Riversides is initiating, the harvesting of rainwater using  
rainbarrels at the homeowner level and larger systems for commercial,  
industrial, institutional and multi-unit residential, means cities  
will be able to supply the growing urban forest with water collected  
freely, and equally importantly for local watersheds, diverted from  
storm, sanitary, and river systems in our communities.

This rain harvesting approach provides leverage to both sides of the  
energy equation; It helps mitigate through reducing our need for pump  
energy, and provides for adaptation, by helping us prepare for warmer,  
drier times ahead. Also, by capturing and making available a supply  
normally diverted to become waste, it both 'creates' supply and also  
lessens demand on the municipal potable system currently used to water  
our cities growing trees.

If we're going to grow urban forests in the hot dry environs of our  
cities, we can use every drop of help we can get. And as our urban  
infrastructures age and need to be replaced, on-site rainwater  
harvesting can provide a way to lighten this need as well. The new  
forests will require lots of water, and right now we toss the bulk of  
it down the drain.

See www.riversides.org

Cheers,     John-Paul Warren


Jp Warren
416-467-1339
Toronto