Contemporary Park Issues - Stanley Park Tree Cull (March 28, 2024)
...The cost of climate change
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1.7154857
A CBC report (https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1.7154857) describes a massive tree culling in arguably Canada’s most beautiful and busiest urban park. The only thing more tragic is the reason - drought and a looper moth infestation. We have let this happen, on our watch. The only good news, and very little at that, is that forests can regenerate, aided by the aggressive tree planting program with potentially more drought tolerant tree specifies. This issue is not unique to Vancouver.
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1.7154857
Now for the rest of the story…
Municipal Funding Realities
Having worked 3+ decades in, or for, a parks administration, I can tell you that that Parks Board has an impossible task managing its urban forest. Urban forest management is a complex multi-faceted program. Inventory management programs typically include drought tree replacement programs, hazard trees removal, pest management, tree pruning and everyday maintenance programs. New inventory is added each year and must be reviewed and approved, and added to the inventory. This work requires employment of certified arborists as urban foresters.
Parks and tree management budgets compete for funds with protective services, transportation, transit, utilities, etc. Funding for operational and capital improvements for each funding entity increase as cities and community needs grow, population demographics evolve, standards increase. Social disorder are at levels never seen before, as are housing prices. Funds availability do not equal funding needs. Not surprisingly, taxpayers and elected officials push back against tax increases to fund the complete suite of municipal services.
The competition for scarce funding represents an invisible structural barrier to meeting community needs of all kinds, including tree management. My experience was that park expenditures are given somewhat less priority than roadways, transit, utilities and protective services. Parks are too often not seen as core services, despite the documented social, ecological, health and wellness benefits. Now add climate change and pest infestations, and you get Stanley Park that requires a massive tree management program expenditure, likely delayed from previous years, and the predictable public push back of the outcome.
Fun Tree Factoids
Vancouver has a tree bylaw that limits tree removals on private property. Edmonton has a tree bylaw for public lands only. My recollection is the legislative and/or political environment is more permissive in BC than Alberta.
Edmontons tree bylaw does not ban tree removals, but puts in place a process to value trees ($$). Mature trees can be valued at $10,000 or more. The value of the lost tree(s) must be replaced with new trees or shrubs.
Trees are often used to define areas between uses, and sometimes are planted in beds to reduce maintenance costs.
In 2020 Darren Grove of the City of Edmonton has been estimated that there are about 380,000 trees in parks and in roadway boulevards in Edmonton.
Edmonton has a volunteer tree planting program called “Root for Trees.” Root for Trees increases tree and shrub planting throughout the city with the help of corporations, local businesses, community groups, teams, families and individual residents.
Trees in Edmonton can be given a historic designation.
The 2006-2016 Edmonton Urban Parks Management Plan, for the first time in any parks master plan, accommodated natural tree standards as part of the 10% reserve entitlements (2% of the 10%). In a subsequent area plan (Riverview), 3.5% of the 10% of park land area was natural areas. I was the administrative lead on this plan/policy development.
The City web site reports that for the past several years, the City has lost roughly 3,000 Boulevard and Open Space Trees annually. Trees succumb to pests and disease, construction damage, drought, vehicle collisions, storm damage, age and other external circumstances. Furthermore, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, a drought contributed to a significant loss of total canopy. Roughly 20,000 trees were lost and that loss has yet to be completely replaced.
The Lodgepole Pine is Alberta’s official tree.
Horse chestnut trees are found in Edmonton, are rare, but not native. Seeds were brought to Edmonton by european immigrants.
At Hawrelak Park, the city closed the public place for three years with a consequent loss of public access and programming of one of our premier park sites, while ripping up trees to improve utility servicing. The closure was necessitated by efforts to adopt efficient project management.
Protective services have requested in the past the arborist trim trees to improve visibility (i.e., crime prevention through environmental design) into a park site. Deciduous trees can provide better views into a park site.
Edmonton design and construction standards provide a list of both coniferous and deciduous trees, sizes and planting instructions for parks and roadway boulevards. Trees planted by contractors on public lands have a two step process to review and approve (i.e., construction completion certificate and facility acceptance certificate), that takes a minimum of one or two years to complete.
Thanks another great edition.