[CANUFNET] City of Ottawa 's Trees, Reforestation, and Environmental Enhancement (TREE) program Challenge

[Menounos, Kim]

Hi, I have to agree with Philip from Mississauga on some points. Our Parks department is always underfunded for the level of expectation for all aspects of urban forestry from planning to maintenance. Under a community-funded initiative, ForesTree Fest, we have planted about 4000 trees in Prince George, many of them seedlings, in response to the mountain pine beetle epidemic and subsequent loss of about 25% of our forest cover overall, more in City parks.  Our Parks department is already stretched, so adding several newly planted trees that require watering, maintenance, etc, that replace mature trees that needed nothing is pushing the limits. Obviously, Toronto and Ottawa are both much larger than Prince George, but it's only a matter of scale. 

 

Kim Menounos, RPF

Urban Forester

City of Prince George

Prince George, BC

 

________________________________

From: canufnet-bounces at list.web.net [mailto:canufnet-bounces at list.web.net] On Behalf Of Philip van Wassenaer
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2007 6:47 AM
To: 'Canadian Urban Forest Network'
Subject: Re: [CANUFNET] City of Ottawa 's Trees, Reforestation,and Environmental Enhancement (TREE) program Challenge

 

Hello all,

 

This is a very nice programme indeed......however like always this is only tree planting...politically correct yes, nice for the environment yes, good photo ops and talking points for the politicians yes...

 

Good for the future of urban forests and urban forestry..??????

 

We only see tree planting...where is the strategic planning for the future? If Ottawa is going to plant 100,000 trees in the next four years, do you have an appropriate increase in your budget to water, prune and maintain those trees to maturity? If no then how many trees will actually survive. How much benefit will we really get?

 

Sorry to all, I do not mean to be too negative, but I have not seen the anticipated results in terms of huge public engagement from simply planting trees. In the original e-mail there is a nice statement:

 

Project..."has the prospect of building strong public awareness of the issues of local governments in our struggle to maintain the environmental integrity of our communities while providing a venue for promoting simple actions and individual commitments to environmentally based activities."

 

 

In fact these projects also have the risk of disengaging the public when they see the trees they went out to plant, all or mostly dead in the next few years.

 

I can only get behind this kind of plan if we really are going to get 100,00o trees in the future.....I have not seen that happen to often with these large scale planting initiatives.

 

My 2 cents!

 

 

Philip van Wassenaer

Mississauga, Ontario

 

-----Original Message-----
From: canufnet-bounces at list.web.net [mailto:canufnet-bounces at list.web.net] On Behalf Of Mike Prueter
Sent: Friday, June 15, 2007 10:26 PM
To: Canadian Urban Forest Network
Subject: Re: [CANUFNET] City of Ottawa 's Trees, Reforestation,and Environmental Enhancement (TREE) program Challenge

 

Hello Craig,

 

May I suggest that you look at planting more trees in the fall perhaps after 

the first rain in September?  After looking at several drier biogeoclimatic 

subzones in the western part of Canada and especially in the dry portions of 

Idaho, USA, we have been able to achieve much higher survival rates and 

seedling performance in the Fall.  The trees are also found to be in sync with 

the growing cycle when seedlings, either 1+1 or 2+0 's have had bud set and are 

concentrating in their first season to only grow roots immediately after 

planting.  Expecting seedlings to grow their first season's top-growth in a 

droughty environment going into the hot summer months, without any new roots 

has proven to be a serious mistake.  As a silviculturist for many years on the 

west coast and even as far south as California, records have proven in many dry 

environments, (and with the trend to more global warming)that this has been 

very successful.  It would be wise to consider this option, and discuss this 

especially with your nursery manager/grower prior to deciding on your actual 

planting date.  Please take this only as food for thought.

 

Mike Prueter R.P.F.

Maple Ridge, B.C.

 

 

 

Quoting "Huff, Craig" <Craig.Huff at ottawa.ca>:

 

> The City of Ottawa has launched a new Trees, Reforestation, and Environmental

> Enhancement (TREE) program which aims to enhance the city's urban and rural

> forests through the planting of 100,000 over the next four years.   Ottawa

> views this program as an inspiration and motivation to build local

> opportunities for partnerships with community groups, schools, businesses,

> corporation, and citizens of all ages in leaving a vital legacy for the

> future of our City. The TREE program responds to the United Nations

> Environment Programme's (UNEP) Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign, a

> worldwide initiative to plant one billion trees. The City of Ottawa has

> pledge our commitment of 100,000 trees to this campaign.

> 

> > We believe that the joining together of Canadian municipalities will

> contribute to the planting of millions of trees across the country and as

> such the City of Ottawa's Mayor, has issued a National Tree Planting

> Challenge to all Canadian Municipalities to band together and plant trees for

> the environment . The National Tree Planting Challenge has the prospect of

> building strong public awareness of the issues of local governments in our

> struggle to maintain the environmental integrity of our communities while

> providing a venue for promoting simple actions and individual commitments to

> environmentally based activities. For your municipality, it is just a matter

> of signing on to the UNEP> '> s web site

> <http://www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign> and recording the number of trees

> your municipality is planning to plant over the next few years

> > 

> > As the host of the National Tree Planting Challenge, Ottawa agrees to tally

> and track the commitments of participating municipalities, develop a

> communication network to share interesting planting projects between

> municipalities and with the media and keep the UNEP> '> s > '> Plant a

> Billion Trees> '>  campaign informed of our communal progress.  Hundreds of

> Challenge Packages (including a Participation Pledge Card) have already been

> issued to municipal leaders across Canada and there are more to come.  For

> more information on the City of Ottawa's TREE program, the National Tree

> Planting Challenge, or to receive a Participation Pledge card for your

> municipality, please e-mail to TREE at ottawa.ca, call toll free to 866-261-9799

> ext. 1TREE, or visit  www.ottawa.ca/TREE  

> > 

> > We invite you to sign on with Ottawa, plant trees and count your

> municipality into > '> The National Tree Planting Challenge> '> .

> > 

> > 

> > Craig Huff, R.P.F.

> > City Forester, Forestry Services

> > Public Works & Services Department

> > 100 Constellation Cres., 5th Floor

> > Ottawa, ON  K2G 6J8

> > Tel:  613-580-2424 ext. 21138

> > Fax:  613-580-2611

> > Email: craig.huff at ottawa.ca

> > 

> 

> 

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> 

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> 

 

 

 

 

 

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