[CANUFNET] Urban Trees Are Infrastructure - Natural Capital Assets

Sat Feb 20 11:08:17 EST 2021

Dear Tenley, Ian, Alex and Erna:

It is always interesting to present provocative thoughts to see where the resulting dialogue leads.

I follow the postings on canufnet religiously as there are often interesting questions posed and answers  / opinions offered.

I am actually located in Switzerland and involved with European Urban Forestry and Arboriculture as well as remaining active in the US arboricultural / UF community and I have yet to see appreciable results from adopting the language preferred by Planners / Architects / Landscape architects - that is, Green Infrastructure as their equivalent of Urban Forest. 

What I see, for the most part, is spatial development happening the same old way and trees being removed that could have been protected, preserved and retained for lack of Best Management planning and design during the design phase of public infrastructure projects. It’s one thing to have laws and ordinances, it’s quite another to see that realized before damage is done and trees are removed. We have many strategies to enable a Building WITH Trees approach to ecological design but realizing those strategies and making them required is a whole another ball game.

Please let me know me if my observations are not, for the most part, correct.

In addition, let’s really look at the term Infrastructure as it is applied to trees and the landscapes they populate, aka soil. When we construct a building, we do that with people’s needs in mind in addition to all the regulations and standards. We consider the building infrastructure but do we also consider people infrastructure? They are, according to the dialogue offered, part of the construct but we never assign infrastructure to people as a descriptive. 

Now, if we look at how we might design a sidewalk if we wish to accommodate trees. We might construct root paths or soil trenches or we might install a structural substrate such as CU® soil underneath the sidewalk. This is definitely infrastructure but we are doing that, as with building construction, to accommodate the living organism we are asking to exist in this location. How is that different than the people who will occupy the building that’s been constructed?

Last, yes, trees and other flora are used in bioswales and bio retention constructions but when you study this with Penn State Extension and Philadelphia Water, which I have, only the water retention part of the construct is referred to as Green Infrastructure. The plants and the soil are not, as they are not construction elements in the infrastructure sense but rather functional living elements that enhance the ability of the construct to retain water and facilitate filtration.

In most of Europe, Urban Forestry is not readily available as an area of study in universities and many of the BMPs known in the US and Canada are not known here. Planners, Architects and Landscape Architects are still dictating the HOW we Build WITH Trees but affording our urban trees their preferences is not yet the order of business. Here in Switzerland, there is a continuing education initiative that’s getting under way to remedy that situation and actually create the profession of Urban Forester. The term Green Infrastructure was successfully challenged and it’s control of the dialogue diminished.

Just some food for thought.

Kind regards from Luzern Switzerland
Naomi

> On Feb 19, 2021, at 2:11 PM, Tenley Conway via CANUFNET <canufnet at list.web.net> wrote:
> 
> I think we also need to recognize that how the term green infrastructure (or Canada’s ‘natural’ infrastructure) is regularly used is different than whether it is an effective conceptualization that will help achieve urban tree/forest goals, including providing new funding opportunities  (although I am in favor of tress as GI, as well).
>  
> Ian Mell’s book Global green infrastructure: lessons for successful policy-making, investment and management (2016) has several introductory chapters identifying the multiple origins of the term green infrastructure, which had led to the varied understandings of it that we have today.  While the US EPA’s stormwater definition is dominant in the US, in Europe green  infrastructure is typically considered networks of connected green space that provide multiple ecosystem services and support biodiversity, and increasingly is broadly discussed as a process for strategic landscape planning.  My research on Canada (primarily focused on Ontario)  is that different definitions are used within and between different governments/municipalities, although trees are often front and center.
>  
> Finally, the US EPA definition includes trees and other vegetation, with city’s like Philadelphia planting trees as part of their green infrastructure initiative to address EPA stormwater requirements.
>  
> Tenley
>  
> Tenley Conway | Professor and Associate Chair-Research
> Department of Geography, Geomatics and Environment| University of Toronto- Mississauga
> 3359 Mississauga Rd, Mississauga, ON Canada L5L 1C6
> http://sites.utm.utoronto.ca/conway/ <http://sites.utm.utoronto.ca/conway/>
>  
> Associate Editor | Urban Forestry and Urban Greening <https://www.journals.elsevier.com/urban-forestry-and-urban-greening>
>  
>  
>  
> From: CANUFNET <canufnet-bounces at list.web.net> On Behalf Of Ian Wilson via CANUFNET
> Sent: February 19, 2021 1:22 PM
> To: Canadian Urban Forest Network <canufnet at list.web.net>
> Cc: Ian Wilson <IWilson at kelowna.ca>
> Subject: Re: [CANUFNET] Urban Trees Are Infrastructure - Natural Capital Assets
>  
> EXTERNAL EMAIL:
> I’m in agreement with Alex on this. While cities also benefit from “natural capital” such as intact watersheds that provide clean water, there’s a lot of “green infrastructure” being installed and maintained to provide benefits such as storm water management. This includes trees, bioswales and other vegetation. It’s installed and maintained just like other infrastructure.
>  
> Ian Wilson
> City of Kelowna
>  
> From: CANUFNET <canufnet-bounces at list.web.net <mailto:canufnet-bounces at list.web.net>> On Behalf Of Alex Satel via CANUFNET
> Sent: February 19, 2021 9:41 AM
> To: Canadian Urban Forest Network <canufnet at list.web.net <mailto:canufnet at list.web.net>>
> Cc: Alex Satel <asatel at ufis.ca <mailto:asatel at ufis.ca>>
> Subject: Re: [CANUFNET] Urban Trees Are Infrastructure - Natural Capital Assets
>  
> CAUTION: External email - Check before you click!
>  
> Naomi,
>  
> With respect – it is my humble opinion, and one that I know is shared by many, that trees and urban forests in fact are infrastructure. I suspect your comment might ruffle more than a few feathers in the Canadian urban forestry community, many members of which have been working long and hard for our urban forests to be recognized precisely as such. I would argue that the distinction of whether something is a human physical construct or not is an arbitrary and outmoded way to define infrastructure – what counts is why and how those assets are managed for the services they provide to communities and the environment.
>  
> While neither your citation nor mine are from Manitoba—the home of Trees Please Winnipeg—it may be of interest to you to note that Ontario Regulation O. Reg. 588/17: Asset Management Planning for Municipal Infrastructure under the Infrastructure for Jobs and Prosperity Act, 2015, S.O. 2015, c. 15 defines a green infrastructure asset as:
>  
> “an infrastructure asset consisting of natural or human-made elements that provide ecological and hydrological functions and processes and includes natural heritage features and systems, parklands, stormwater management systems, street trees, urban forests, natural channels, permeable surfaces and green roofs.”
>  
> Perhaps Manitoba has similar legislation—that I don’t know. Regardless, the whole objective is to recognize trees and urban forests as the vital community infrastructure assets they are so that they will be managed using some of the same principles and approaches as more “traditional” human-constructed municipal infrastructure . In fact, the above-cited regulation compels Ontario municipalities to do just that by 2023, and with very good reason.
>  
> For a great example of the application of infrastructure asset management principles to urban forest infrastructure assets, refer to York Region’s Green Asset Management Plan, and to the Green Infrastructure Ontario Coalition’s Urban Forest Asset Management Primer here <https://greeninfrastructureontario.org/app/uploads/2016/06/UF-Toolkit-Part-2-Asset-Management-Primer-Final.pdf>.
>  
> With kind regards,
>  
> Alex
>  
> Alexander Satel, MFC
> Urban forestry and arboricultural consultant
> ISA Certified Arborist ON-1353A
> ISA Tree Risk Assessment Qualified (TRAQ)
> 
> Urban Forest Innovations, Inc.
> 1331 Northaven Drive
> Mississauga, ON L5G 4E8
> T: (905) 274-1022
> asatel at ufis.ca <mailto:asatel at ufis.ca>
> urbanforestinnovations.com
>  
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> From: CANUFNET <canufnet-bounces at list.web.net <mailto:canufnet-bounces at list.web.net>> On Behalf Of Naomi Zurcher via CANUFNET
> Sent: February 19, 2021 12:18 PM
> To: Canadian Urban Forest Network <canufnet at list.web.net <mailto:canufnet at list.web.net>>
> Cc: Naomi Zurcher <treerap at sprintmail.com <mailto:treerap at sprintmail.com>>
> Subject: Re: [CANUFNET] Urban Trees Are Infrastructure - Natural Capital Assets
>  
> Hi Erna:
>  
> You’ll forgive me but trees are NOT infrastructure.
>  
> Infrastructure is what humans construct. Trees are a living organism - NOT a human construct.
>  
> Trees are an essential part of the Urban Forest which can be defined as follows:
>  
> " The Urban Forest is an ecosystem characterized by the presence of trees and related flora and fauna, the soils and landscapes they populate and the air and water resource they coexist with, all in a dynamic association with people and their human settlements." (Zürcher, N. In review. Connecting Trees with People: Synergistic Strategies for Growing the Urban Forest. Springer Publishing)  
>  
> Green infrastructure is a term that was coined by the US EPA and was defined as follows:
> "Section 502 of the Clean Water Act defines green infrastructure as "...the range of measures that use plant or soil systems, permeable pavement or other permeable surfaces or substrates, stormwater harvest and reuse, or landscaping to store, infiltrate, or evapotranspirate stormwater and reduce flows to sewer systems or to surface waters."
> Green infrastructure is a cost-effective, resilient approach to managing wet weather impacts that provides many community benefits. While single-purpose gray stormwater infrastructure—conventional piped drainage and water treatment systems—is designed to move urban stormwater away from the built environment, green infrastructure reduces and treats stormwater at its source while delivering environmental, social, and economic benefits…”
> https://www.epa.gov/green-infrastructure/what-green-infrastructure <https://www.epa.gov/green-infrastructure/what-green-infrastructure>
>  
> Thank you for your attention to this important information
>  
> Kind regards
> Naomi Zürcher
>  
> 
> On Feb 19, 2021, at 11:52 AM, ebuffie--- via CANUFNET <canufnet at list.web.net <mailto:canufnet at list.web.net>> wrote:
>  
> Hi Everyone,
>  
> Trees Please Winnipeg has made a budget submission to the federal government asking for natural infrastructure funds for urban forests. If you have time you can help to support our efforts by reading our submission here:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VpBsp1Ai_wJPX7020UqP4miVDZlVeoVA/view?fbclid=IwAR32HXwFpjVrYvEXUPwKCjTCB7P5tcLOa4HwKr8A0M3BkGeJOqN1ViKXugU <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VpBsp1Ai_wJPX7020UqP4miVDZlVeoVA/view?fbclid=IwAR32HXwFpjVrYvEXUPwKCjTCB7P5tcLOa4HwKr8A0M3BkGeJOqN1ViKXugU>
>  
> Then take a few minutes to:
>  
> 
> 1. Fill out the budget 2021 questionnaire and make sure you include “Invest in Communities through public transit, affordable housing, and green infrastructure” as
>  one of your choices for Question One. 
> https://letstalkbudget2021.ca/pre_budget_consultations <https://letstalkbudget2021.ca/pre_budget_consultations>
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 2. EMAIL Finance Minister Freeland and cc your MP to let them know why you urban trees matter and support our request for infrastructure funding. Chrystia.Freeland at parl.gc.ca <mailto:Chrystia.Freeland at parl.gc.ca> 
>  
> You can also read an oped on the subject here:https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/analysis/urban-forest-deserves-multi-layered-support-573826582.html?fbclid=IwAR0BcLtz36j_RckKmlpYrbWGsvcDM-SPPCLC42H17kRJ7Yfvu351k-o6NaE <https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/analysis/urban-forest-deserves-multi-layered-support-573826582.html?fbclid=IwAR0BcLtz36j_RckKmlpYrbWGsvcDM-SPPCLC42H17kRJ7Yfvu351k-o6NaE>
>  
> Thanks for your time!
>  
> Erna
>  
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