Victoria’s lush natural environment is what the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame Cathedral is to Paris, a crowning jewel. No one would suggest taking the Notre Dame apart stone by stone to the ground and selling it off, however, that is exactly what we are doing to our urban trees and forests.
Our natural environment – that includes a variety of trees, not planter boxes – is why tourism is the number one economic driver in BC. With all due respect, anywhere can look like Richmond.
Victoria is known for having nature in the heart of the city, but that is changing fast.
The value of our established trees and ecosystems is pure poetry. We can’t forget the role the natural environment has on art and culture – trees are part of the rhapsody – they are living art pieces with well-documented health and community benefits that are priceless!
Trees are a public health issue. Trees clean and cool the air, create oxygen, decrease carbon dioxide, provide essential habitat for birds and animals, and save this city a lot of money by processing and filtering hundreds of thousands of gallons of water that would overtax our storm sewers.
At one time, builders worked around trees. The most coveted neighbourhoods are generally those with the most trees and natural features. Today, builders scrape the land bare of every earthworm and living thing, despite the footprint of the building and without regard to how this impacts the natural ecosystem and surrounding neighbourhood.
It takes 269 saplings to replace the many benefits of one mature tree! People who live on streets and in neighbourhoods without trees have a higher rate of asthma than those that do?
If we finally took climate change seriously we would be rewarding developers who understand the benefits of working with nature, not against it.
It’s time to value our trees as the assets they are and implement recommendations from paid studies that have long since been conducted and get creative and collaborative about how we work with our precious landscape.
Victoria is such a coveted destination that there will always be developers and builders willing to work with the recommendations laid out in the yet to be implemented 2013 Urban Forest Management Plan.
We have to take a managed approach by attracting sustainability experts with creative long-term goals and vision vs profiteers in it for the short term gain.
The reward is we all win. Affordable housing can still be very much part of that equation.
Right now, there is a winner-take-all approach to development in Victoria – with the lowest quote winning the job, generally from massive corporations who can most afford to bid low, yet seemingly always getting paid more than the original quote.
We could be representing people, neighbourhoods and communities more proportionally by taking a sustainable and holistic approach to development. There are plenty of local professionals willing to demonstrate what’s possible, given the chance.
With the continued loss of thousands of our established urban trees, the impact of smoke-filled skies in our region for three consecutive summers, and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report calling for immediate climate action, the Creatively United for the Planet Society, together with the Community Trees Matter Network, has requested the City of Victoria implement the approved 2013 Urban Forest Master Plan immediately, revise the city’s 2005 Tree Preservation Bylaws and budget for a qualified coordinator to oversee, educate and implement it department-wide.
We hope the mayor and council will enhance the livability and future of the City of Victoria by implementing these recommendations and making it clear this is a city where trees matter!