Habitat and Housing in Harmony
I recently stood before the Victoria City council and mayor to urge them to implement the Recommended Actions of the URBAN FOREST MASTER PLAN of 2013 and that leaders of the local Indigenous Nations of Esquimalt and Songhees be invited to participate in this work. Affordable HOUSING a green and livable HABITAT must be part of Victoria’s Strategic Plan.
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The Human Benefit of Trees
Kudos to Michael Meagher for this Letter to the Editor in the Nov. 22nd Times Colonist. “Anyone for a tax reduction on properties that contain trees?”
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Let’s Make It A Great Day Again
It was a great day when the council and mayor the City of Victoria approved the Urban Forest Master Plan in 2013. It is comprehensive, sustainable, and inspiring. The trouble is – it hasn’t been implemented. This plan recognizes the disconnect between what has... Read more
An Antidote to Despair
We are in a climate crisis. Daily we witness or hear about climate disasters all over the world. A recent windstorm in Italy wiped out over a million trees that were 200 years old. Currently in California drought conditions have caused horrific wildfires resulting in a loss of lives, of homes, of trees, plants and wildlife.
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Suggestions For Tree Health and Preservation
Trees perform important eco-services, such as creating oxygen, cooling the air during our increasingly long, hot summers, reducing storm water, and most importantly, they store carbon. Big trees store a lot more carbon than saplings do. Big trees do more of everything on that list than saplings do.
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Development With Vision
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... Read more
Healthy Saplings Lead to Healthy Ecosystems
The first three years, especially the first, are the most critical to tree saplings as they don’t have a developed root system to gather water, ward off pests, avoid being trampled or damaged. We lose the benefits mature trees provide when we replace them with... Read more
Losing trees in Victoria: one mature tree equals 269 saplings
We should all be concerned about global warming. We can see the changes happening now; our summers are longer and a lot drier. But I wonder if the City cares. Because I don’t see much evidence they’re trying to save our mature trees, one of the few factors that reduce... Read more
Why Trees Matter, A Lot!
Mankind has embarked on a huge, uncontrolled experiment – we have destroyed about 80 per cent of the world’s forests. More are destroyed every minute. How long can we last without them? Instead of waiting to find out, many people are planting thousands, even millions of trees.
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Community Trees: Questions for Candidates
Thank you to the candidates who responded to our tree preservation questionnaire and put themselves forward to run in the 2018 municipal elections. Congratulations to all! Updated October 19th with new responses Dr. Jennie Moore of BCIT recently estimated the... Read more
Informative Tree Links
List updated August 13th, 2019 Urban Forests: A Climate Adaptation Guide Planting Our Future: A Tree Toolkit For Communities Citizen’s Coolkit on Climate Change & Urban Forestry Tree Canada Resource List Read moreA Poem For You & Me
Trees provide beauty, shade, fresh air, habitat for birds and animals, ambiance, sequester carbon and help fight climate change, plus provide chemicals that we inhale that have a calming influence. Now, when we need them the most, trees are being treated as disposable... Read more
Book Excerpt: Conversations With A Tree by Jane Warren Campbell
The book explores Jane’s communication with trees, revealing that what they have to share is deep wisdom and pure love. Jane not only shares the heart-felt messages from the trees, she shows you how to experience for yourself the guidance and healing that the trees have to offer.
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