There’s something missing in the neighbourhood.
Who you gonna call? ––––––– TREE PLANTERS!
The trees are coming down, and it don’t look good.
Who you gonna call? –––––––– TREE PLANTERS!
We ain’t afraid of hard work.
We like to dig in the dirt.
Who you gonna call? ––––––– TREE PLANTERS!
At the last council meeting I brought my shovel. Tonight I have my bell, to sound the alarm. We are in a climate crisis! And yet engineers and planners working for the city continue to destroy and remove trees to make sidewalks, sewer pipe lines, roads and other infrastructure. Why is so little value put on trees, our hardest working community members?
Trees are always on the job and their abilities to multitask are amazing. For little or no pay they clean the air and soil, create oxygen, store water, prevent erosion, buffer the wind, cool the air in the hot dry summers, and mitigate the effects of storm water in our warm wet winters. They make us feel good mentally and physically. They provide shelter and habitat for wildlife, and some give us food.
And trees increase in value with age. Think about that. They get better at their jobs, the older they get. And when they do start to decline, they are still useful. They can become wildlife trees. Their fallen bodies can become fertile ground for new tree growth.
For every dollar spent on trees they give $8 back in community benefits. If I was selling you a stock option with those numbers you would think “Too good to be true. It must be a Ponzie scheme.”
How do trees do it? Not only are trees amazing at multi-tasking, they do it all for little or no pay, and they are always on the job. You would think this would qualify them for an award or two, or some respect, reverence, or at least some protection. Instead they are axed, removed, summarily dismissed or seen as problematic when new projects are planned. It is this cowboy/colonial mind set that has to change.
I honestly don’t know what it is going to take to get that message to the people in power.
Maybe if people create a big enough ruckus in the media they can save their neighbourhood trees, but not everyone has the time to go to meetings, to protest, to organize and fight for their trees to be preserved. Some people are too busy working to keep food on their tables and roofs over their heads. Everyone deserves trees in their neighbourhood, not just the people that have the time and the energy to fight for them. And why should people have to fight for something that is so essential, and so vital?
It seems the high paid executives running the city and the CRD have completely lost touch with what is vital, with what is sacred, with what truly matters to make our communities a healthy and welcoming place to be. And guess what. We need trees more than they need us. In fact, trees would be doing a whole lot better without us around.
If city engineers and planners were truly proactive, they would prioritize the preservation of trees when planning new infrastructure and projects. They would create more permeable surfaces around trees. They would plant understory plants to aid in the health and survival of trees and help create biodiversity. They would begin an aggressive and comprehensive plan to get more trees planted to create a legacy for tomorrow. It is time to stop the destruction of our mature healthy trees.
Put some money and ACTION into the Urban Forest Master Plan. Hire someone to oversee the health and preservation of the city’s urban forest and to work on strengthening the city’s very weak tree protection bylaws. Preserving mature trees and adding more to our city will provide an excellent climate legacy for the future. And the future is NOW!
Another suggestion: If you’re wondering what to put in the place where Sir John A. MacDonald once stood, I would suggest planting a Western Red Cedar. The First Nations call this tree ‘the long life maker’. It would be a grand gesture of reconciliation for First Nations and for the land.