[CANUFNET] Urban Trees Are Infrastructure--Green Infrastructure (again)
Tenley Conway
tenley.conway at utoronto.ca
Tue Feb 23 11:06:25 EST 2021
Is including trees as green infrastructure hurting progress towards urban forests goals (including growing and protecting the urban forest)? I don’t think so, but I believe it has the potential to help by exposing more people to the benefits of urban forests using a language (infrastructure, assets, etc.) that can be effective with different audiences. Given that promotion and protection of green infrastructure has been adopted into policy around the world, I am not sure of the benefits of now trying to exclude trees from either research or policy GI discourse.
While part of me is very uncomfortable in with a framing that says trees have value because of what they do for people, which GI and ecosystem service framings primarily do rather than equally recognising their intrinsic value, if such framings are more effective at encouraging action that leads to very similar (or better!) outcomes for the urban forest, then I am happy to embrace it. Calling trees green infrastructure and saying that GI has a value similar to other municipal infrastructure assets it is another way that the importance of urban forests can be communicated and recognized, including among those who are not interested in protecting trees because of their intrinsic value.
A few years ago Michelle Sawka from Green Infrastructure Ontario Coalition gave a great talk, where she explained GIO’s policy advocacy strategy with the province. Hopefully I am not misrepresenting her message, but I believe she argued that by making sure green infrastructure (which GIO defines as including trees) is incorporated into a variety of different policies then GI and its importance becomes more widely acknowledged by a variety of decision-makers and is harder to eliminate from regulation when governments are working to eliminate environmental protections (as is happening in Ontario now). This is why GIO advocated for including GI in Ontario’s municipal asset management requirements, and also Ontario’s updated Municipal Act and the City of Toronto Act, and the Places to Grow Act etc. Could Ontario have stronger regulation to protect trees, especially during development? Of course, but calling trees green infrastructure has not weakened protection for urban forests.
Tenley
From: CANUFNET <canufnet-bounces at list.web.net> On Behalf Of Naomi Zurcher via CANUFNET
Sent: February 23, 2021 10:10 AM
To: Canadian Urban Forest Network <canufnet at list.web.net>
Cc: Naomi Zurcher <treerap at sprintmail.com>
Subject: Re: [CANUFNET] Urban Trees Are Infrastructure--Green Infrastructure (again)
EXTERNAL EMAIL:
But, that still relegates trees and soil to constructs which they are not.
Rather, Green Infrastructure is a part of Urban Forest planning and management - specifically the planning and management of the urban water resource.
I would like to restate my query about why we use the term infrastructure to describe trees and soil when we are creating infrastructure that theoretically should accommodate their inclusion when we don’t use the term to describe the people we are building buildings for. Seems to be a conflict in our thinking.
Naomi
On Feb 23, 2021, at 9:47 AM, Bohdan Kowalyk via CANUFNET <canufnet at list.web.net<mailto:canufnet at list.web.net>> wrote:
In the Ontario 2014 Provincial Policy Statement, the terms "street trees" and "urban forests" occur in the definition of "Green infrastructure" on page 42.
Bohdan
On Tue, Feb 23, 2021 at 9:36 AM Jack Radecki via CANUFNET <canufnet at list.web.net<mailto:canufnet at list.web.net>> wrote:
We all have a really good idea of what Green Infrastructure means. In my
previous post I was looking for the words "tree" or "urban forestry" at
least in Ontario's PPS. Does anyone see it?
Jack Radecki
-----Original Message-----
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CANUFNET
Sent: February 22, 2021 8:18 PM
To: canufnet at list.web.net<mailto:canufnet at list.web.net>
Cc: Day, Susan <susan.day at ubc.ca<mailto:susan.day at ubc.ca>>
Subject: Re: [CANUFNET] Urban Trees Are Infrastructure--Green Infrastructure
(again)
Just as a point of history, my belief (I could be wrong about this) is that
the term "green infrastructure" was only adopted rather recently in the
Clean Water Act in the U.S. by the USEPA and is used primarily for CWA
regulations and permitting and thus has a rather heavy stormwater management
focus. A similar phenomenon has occurred with the term Low Impact
Development--it is frequently used very narrowly for stormwater management
facilities. My recollection is that "green infrastructure" has been in use
since the 1990s or perhaps earlier in the broader sense of
infrastructure--i.e., the foundational support system for something, often
cities or more broadly, life on earth. I have noted that virtually everyone
defines it before talking about it, perhaps realizing that the term is used
in a variety of contexts for different purposes. I know I certainly do!
One could argue that the confusion makes the term less useful. Nonetheless,
the concept has been found useful for emphasizing that trees and soils etc.
do not need to be wiped away in order to build something, but are instead a
critical foundational system. Whether this helps protect trees... I suppose
the jury is out on that one. -Susan Day
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Today's Topics:
1. Re: Urban Trees Are Infrastructure - Natural Capital Assets
(Naomi Zurcher)
2. Muncipal Forestry Institute Webinar (owen croy)
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Message: 1
Date: Sat, 20 Feb 2021 11:08:17 -0500
From: Naomi Zurcher <treerap at sprintmail.com<mailto:treerap at sprintmail.com>>
To: Canadian Urban Forest Network <canufnet at list.web.net<mailto:canufnet at list.web.net>>
Subject: Re: [CANUFNET] Urban Trees Are Infrastructure - Natural
Capital Assets
Message-ID: <C4967A3A-9ED8-43E5-9F16-13887569F857 at sprintmail.com<mailto:C4967A3A-9ED8-43E5-9F16-13887569F857 at sprintmail.com>>
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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<mailto: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<mailto: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<mailto:canufnet at list.web.net>>
> Cc: Ian Wilson <IWilson at kelowna.ca<mailto: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>
> <mailto: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>
> <mailto:canufnet at list.web.net<mailto:canufnet at list.web.net>>>
> Cc: Alex Satel <asatel at ufis.ca<mailto:asatel at ufis.ca> <mailto: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> <mailto:asatel at ufis.ca<mailto:asatel at ufis.ca>> urbanforestinnovations.com<http://urbanforestinnovations.com/>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> From: CANUFNET <canufnet-bounces at list.web.net<mailto:canufnet-bounces at list.web.net>
> <mailto: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>
> <mailto:canufnet at list.web.net<mailto:canufnet at list.web.net>>>
> Cc: Naomi Zurcher <treerap at sprintmail.com<mailto:treerap at sprintmail.com>
> <mailto: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."
> (Z?rcher, 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 Z?rcher
>
>
> On Feb 19, 2021, at 11:52 AM, ebuffie--- via CANUFNET
<canufnet at list.web.net<mailto:canufnet at list.web.net> <mailto: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/vie
> w?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>
> <mailto: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-d
> eserves-multi-layered-support-573826582.html?fbclid=IwAR0BcLtz36j_RckK
> mlpYrbWGsvcDM-SPPCLC42H17kRJ7Yfvu351k-o6NaE
> <https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/analysis/urban-forest-deser
> ves-multi-layered-support-573826582.html?fbclid=IwAR0BcLtz36j_RckKmlpY
> rbWGsvcDM-SPPCLC42H17kRJ7Yfvu351k-o6NaE>
>
> Thanks for your time!
>
> Erna
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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Message: 2
Date: Sun, 21 Feb 2021 19:47:48 -0800
From: owen croy <urbanforestryguy at gmail.com<mailto:urbanforestryguy at gmail.com>>
To: Canadian Urban Forest Network <canufnet at list.web.net<mailto:canufnet at list.web.net>>
Subject: [CANUFNET] Muncipal Forestry Institute Webinar
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If you've ever thought about attending the Municipal Forestry Institute
(MFI) or if you are interested in urban forestry leadership topics, you're
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https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3753180055625020174.
<http://sma.memberclicks.net/message2/link/6b2d1e90-c1ea-4473-bafc-e5ea4f4e6
03a/1>
*Tuesday, February 23, 2021 *Go To Meeting
*8:00-9:00 PM** Gumby Reunion*
Grab your favorite beverage and join us for a virtual Happy Hour. This will
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*2-2:45* *What the New Administration Means to Urban Forestry.* Guest
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*4-4:45* *Where Do We Go From Here?*
Led by David Jahn, Class of 2012; Claudia Alzate, Class of 2020; Scott
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of 2020
*4:45-5:00 **Closing Remarks*
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