Parkallen News

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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