Parkallen News
Bringing Your Community to You
Why We Need a Private Tree Bylaw
Jan Hardstaff, Civics Director
The City Plan’s big city move, Greener as We Grow, includes a goal to plant 2 million new urban trees.
On March 21, 2023, City Administration will present a report to Council’s Urban Planning Committee proposing actions to achieve this goal, along with the benefits, risks and costs of each action. One proposed action will be a Private Tree Bylaw. This will follow up to an Urban Planning Committee motion in response to the June 14, 2022 City Administration presentation of Council’s Report UPE00664, Tree Preservation on Private Property, which can be found at https:// bit.ly/PrivateTreeProtectionBylaw.
Trees offer valuable environmental benefits - They provide an efficient and cost-effective way to ensure we build a climate resilient city with a lighter carbon footprint. In a nutshell, trees:
1. Conserve energy and reduce carbon emissions. Did you know that large deciduous tree shade and cool homes in summer and evergreens provide shelter from cold winds to reduce heating costs in winter?
2. Moderate the heat island effect. Shade from trees lowers air temperature up to 10C and reduces solar energy absorption and radiation from dark roofs and paved roadways and parking by 20oC or more.
3. Reduce storm water runoff. Storm water absorption by trees helps to mitigate flood risk and impacts from erosion and sedimentation downstream in our ravine and river system.
4. Remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Carbon is sequestered in the wood of the tree.
5. Filter pollutants from the air to improve air quality.
6. Boost our mental health, buffer noise pollution, and provide privacy screening.
7. Create habitat for urban wildlife.
The city recently passed a Public Tree Bylaw to protect the 380,000 city owned boulevard trees in the city. These boulevard trees are exposed to the increasing effects of climate change. There is potential risk of them
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Another Wonderful Snowfest!
A special thank you to our volunteers: John, Suzanne & Joey, Coen, Gabriel, Carol, Ed & Ruby, Cameron, Erin, Clara & Trevor, Julie & Steve, Dave & Michelle, Marlene & Brent, Elissa, Gerald, Robbie, Theresa, Susan, Honya, Sharon, Sarah, James, Myles, Leticia, Kate, Jade, Silken & Julius, Michael, Julia, Peggy, Rayansh, Anastasia, Barbara Anne, Sonya, Manda, Leanne, Meghan, Culley, Christine, Jan, our soccer volunteers, and Longriders!
And thank you to our generous sponsors: City of Edmonton, Snow Valley, Birch Garden, Annie Rue, The Colombian, Global Care Pharmacy, Rick and Alice’s Grill, Pink Gorilla Pizza, Remax, United Cycle, and EFCL.
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being wiped out by diseases like Dutch Elm Disease, if it were to take hold in Alberta.
In neighbourhoods like Parkallen, it is easy to take mature trees for granted. We won’t know what we’ve lost until they are gone. Sadly, it has become common and convenient to remove every mature trees from a site to prepare it for infill redevelopment. This allows the development of the site to be maximized and reduces cost. As the pace of infill redevelopment doubles to meet the goals of the City Plan, the rate at which our private urban tree canopy is lost will also double.
A Private Tree Bylaw would extend greater protection and provide incentives to preserve trees and their benefits. This would require a permit for tree removal and, or, a tree protection or preservation plan for any trees to be maintained during redevelopment of the site. High density cities like Toronto and Vancouver both have Private Tree Bylaws and are able to redevelop while maintaining their valuable mature trees. So can Edmonton!
Parkallen recommended adding to the Draft Zoning Bylaw a 30% Minimum Site Area for Green Infrastructure to ensure adequate room is provided on every site for absorptive soil and soft landscaping and to accommodate larger shade trees and evergreens, as well as living ground covers. These changes will maximize environmental benefits that contribute toward a climate resilient future.
What environmental benefits do the trees on your property provide?
Use the National Tree Benefit Calculator to find out! Enter the species of tree and its diameter at breast height (or DBH) in inches, measured about 1.2 m above ground, to determine a breakdown of benefits your trees provide. Cumulatively, over their lifespan, trees in our community have added millions of dollars’ worth of environmental benefits that contribute to the livability and climate resilience of our neighbourhood.
(780)434-7616 5534-111 Street, Edmonton info@makdental.com
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• Oral sleep appliances
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Dr. Mary Ann Kuharchuk, Dr. Jason Nijjer b.sc., d.d.s b.msc., d.d.s
h.flesher1@share.epsb.ca
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Do You Have Your Community League Membership?
One of the best ways to support your community is to purchase a community league membership. The funds generated help support all community league activities such as pub night, the community garden, playground leaders for the kids, movie nights, and Santa’s breakfast.
By purchasing a membership you receive free skating privileges and many discounts.
Learn more and purchase a membership at www.parkallen.ca/membership.
Dan has been teaching for over 40 years, including over 20 years at MacEwan University. He’s currently accepting students for private drum lessons at his studio in the Parkallen Community in South Edmonton.
All Levels. All Experiences. TO BOOK A LESSON PLAN,
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The volunteer gardeners at the Green & Gold Community Garden, on the University of Alberta South Campus, are making plans for our fifteenth gardening season! The garden is an initiative of the University’s School of Public Health and Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences. The garden is totally volunteer run and we have benefitted from the generosity of many supporters through donations.
The vegetables, herbs and flowers are “spray-free” (no pesticides or artificial fertilizers are used). Anyone is welcome to ‘purchase’ their vegetables at the garden and all the money raised goes to the Tubahumurize Association, a non-profit organization in Rwanda that provides socially and economically marginalized women with vocational training, counselling, life-skills coaching, health care education, and opportunities for sustainable income generating activities. Most individuals who benefit from Tubahumurize are genocide survivors and many are widows or orphans, HIV infected, and survivors of physical and sexual violence. To date, the garden has raised over $450,000 for the Tubahumurize project (includes donations and garden/craft sales).
In recent years, we have been making the transition to alternative gardening methods to grow our vegetables, herbs, and flowers. Some of these methods in-
clude low-till gardening, creation of permanent beds with pathways between them to avoid compaction, use of cover crops, alternative mulching, composting and weed management techniques, and succession planting. The amendments we have made to our soil in recent years has improved the production and quality of our produce, created habitat for bees, worms and and other beneficial insects, and reduced the human labour required to control unwanted weed production over more traditional gardening methods. This has freed up valuable time for our volunteers to learn about planting, managing crops, and focusing on community building activities in the garden.
We are now gearing up for the 2023 gardening season, and are looking for new volunteers to join us at the garden. Both novice & experienced gardeners are welcome. If you aren’t interested in gardening, but would like to help in other ways (distributing produce, promoting the garden, donating seeds or garden tools) please contact us at:
E-mail: gggarden@ualberta.ca Web site: www.greengoldgarden.com
If you would like to receive garden e-mails when produce from the garden is available this summer please send us an e-mail at the above address with a request to be added to the e-mail list.
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Interested in joining the board, but not sure where you would fit? We have many fun, flexible positions! Find out more by emailing president@parkallen.ca. We look forward to hearing from you!
Meghan Dunnigan
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