[CANUFNET] Defining Municipal Tree Ownership

[Andrew Puchalski via CANUFNET]

Greetings all,

In advance of the City of Mississauga's upcoming Street Tree Inventory, we are trying to better define ownership rules for assets within our inventory. Consequently, we are hoping to reach out to a few municipalities to better understand what is happening across the Country and how other Municipalities respond to various scenarios. I would be very grateful if anyone within the group would be willing to share directly with me at andrew.puchalski at mississauga.ca<mailto:andrew.puchalski at mississauga.ca> their experiences or if applicable to share comments with the group.

My questions are as follows :


1.      Do you keep an up to date tree inventory? If so, in what form (database, maps etc.)?
Comment:


2.      Are you able to determine tree ownership on site?

a.      Yes

b.      No
Comment:



3.      How is the property line determined in the field?

a.      Mapping software

b.      Road cross-section

c.      Water shut-off

d.      Other _________________________________________



4.      How are you able to determine ownership of trees (e.g. City of Mississauga trees are considered to be City assets if 50% or more of the tree trunk is present on the city road allowance)?

a.      If any portion of tree trunk is on the road allowance

b.      If 50% of tree trunk is on the road allowance

c.      If 100% of tree trunk is on the road allowance

d.      If any portion of the tree crown hangs over the road allowance

e.      Other __________________________________________



5.      How do you classify your trees e.g. City owned, Private, Shared?
Comment:



6.      How do you deal with trees that were/are in your inventory but were later determined private?

a.      Expire assets

b.      Expire assets and notify property owners

c.      Retain tree in inventory however switch ownership to status

d.      Retain tree as maintained by City

e.      Other __________________________________________________



7.      If work was previously performed on a tree later deemed private, how do you notify the resident about the changes in ownership? What are the legal obligations?

a.      No notification to property owner

b.      Notice from forestry staff left

c.      Other _________________________________________________________

Comment:


8.      How often does your inventory get updated?

a.      Tree inventory contractor

b.      In house staff

c.      Other _________________________________



9.      Do you have a private tree bylaw?

a.      Yes

b.      No
Comment:


10.   Is there a legal responsibility for changing the ownership of a tree?

a.      Yes

b.      No
Comment:

Thank you for your help!


[cid:CAAA3CE2-EFCC-4490-B1A9-7D78571693F9]

Andrew Puchalski Hon. BSc., MMI, MFC
Forestry Inspector
T 905-615-3200 ext.8331
City of Mississauga<http://www.mississauga.ca/> | Community Services Department,
Parks and Forestry Division



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://list.web.net/pipermail/canufnet/attachments/20180824/55f1ffc1/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 4675 bytes
Desc: image001.png
URL: <http://list.web.net/pipermail/canufnet/attachments/20180824/55f1ffc1/attachment.png>