Council votes Feb. 21st on funding the Urban Forest Master Plan. Money is available, but council could maintain its record of underfunding.

If you haven’t already, please tell them how important trees are to all of us. Write city council TODAY and tell them to budget for trees and parks staff. Email: mayorandcouncil@victoria.ca

Victoria’s urban tree canopy is shrinking. Due to climate change and drought, more trees are getting sick or dying. Trees are cut down to make way for development. As well, many of Victoria’s street trees are nearing the end of their life expectancy. The city has not been planting enough trees to maintain our canopy.

Eleven years ago, Victoria’s canopy was estimated at 17.6%.

No one knows what it is now… It could be a rude shock. Perhaps 16%? Maybe less?

Other cities are way ahead of us: Melbourne, Australia has a canopy of 20% and plans to double it by 2040. Increasing trees is a key part of Melbourne’s climate change strategy.

Vancouver, with a canopy of 18%, plans to add 150,000 trees by 2020.

In 2013 Victoria adopted the Urban Forest Master Plan to stop tree loss and even increase the canopy…

But acting on it needs much money in the budget.

The Urban Forest Master Plan and studies show urban trees benefit our health and well-being in many ways. Trees:

• Reduce crime – Baltimore found that planting 10% more trees over four years corresponded with a 12% decrease in crime.
• Improve health, reduce stress, and benefit our immune systems
• Produce oxygen (one average tree produces enough for a family of four)
• Store carbon dioxide, and filter tons of air pollutants
• Large, healthy trees can reduce air pollution 70 times more efficiently than small trees (USDA Forest Service)
• Can greatly reduce heat levels in shaded city streets and buildings
• Significantly reduce wind
• Reduce noise and sound pollution

We’ve had one big win already: funding of $110K to rewrite and update Victoria’s ineffective 2005 Tree Preservation Bylaw. This could help retain more of our beautiful mature trees on private property, but only if we have more staff to work with the owners of those trees.

If council approves funding for the Urban Forest Master Plan on Feb. 21st, the city could:

• Hire an urban forest team with a dedicated manager. This person would coordinate between departments, such as engineering, public works, and planning.
• Better tree policies could be developed, resulting in retaining more mature trees.
• Greatly increase tree planting. Not only could we stop shrinking our tree canopy, we could actually increase it!
• Budget to provide better care and improve the health of the trees we still have.

Please write the mayor and council TODAY at: mayorandcouncil@victoria.ca

Every dollar spent on community trees gives back two to five times the value in benefits, such as cleaner air, stormwater control, energy savings, longer lasting pavement, etc.

Thank you for caring and sharing!