More cash for trees, please
Advocates call for an increase to city’s urban forestry budget
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This article was published 10/12/2021 (1366 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
With plans to funnel more cash towards maintaining the city’s tree canopy proposed in the 2022 preliminary budget, green advocates say it isn’t enough.
According to a news release, the 2022 preliminary budget proposes increasing the operating fund for tree preservation and maintenance by over $4 million, to a total of $31 million over the next two years. Additionally, city’s six-year capital investment plan also proposes $28.6 million investment in the protection and enhancement of the city’s tree canopy.
“While the City of Winnipeg continues to prioritize investments into the preservation, maintenance, protection, and enhancement of our tree canopy, Winnipeggers can get involved by joining the One Million Tree Challenge,” mayor Brian Bowman said in a statement. “I hope as many Winnipeggers as possible will join us as we work together to plant a million new trees before our population reaches a million people.”
However, the Trees Please Winnipeg coalition, which includes members from neighbourhood groups and associations from across the city, is requesting $6 million more for the city’s capital budget for trees over three years. The request, explained member Lisa Forbes, is required “in order to reduce the fluctuation of capital budgets, so long-term, multi-year planting and removal projects and partnerships can be planned.”
Forbes, who is also a member of the Glenelm Neighbourhood Association’s tree committee, said she is tired of hearing politicians wax poetic about the value of trees, then stopping short of providing enough funding to take care of them.
“We’ve known for sometime how people are emotional about our trees, how much we love our trees, and we hear our politicians say what we’re telling them, they’re feeding that back to us,” Forbes said. “And yet, they’re not putting our money where their mouths are.”
Rather than focusing on an emotional appeal, Trees Please Winnipeg is making the argument that investing in trees as infrastructure makes sound economic and environmental sense. One example from a special report from TD Economics in 2014 found that for every dollar spent on maintaining a residential tree canopy saves residents between $1.88 to $12.80 in erosion prevention, air quality improvement, energy savings and carbon sequestration annually.
“If you look at the real value of trees in terms of being a part of our urban environment, we need them to cool our city, to hold water run off, to sequester carbon, and that has a value,” Forbes said. “The same way you value infrastructure like roads, trees have a value, too. You pay for capital expenses, and then you maintain with operating budgets.”
Coun. Shawn Nason (Transcona) sits on the standing policy committee on protection, community services, and parks, which heard a delegation from Trees Please Winnipeg, along with Trees Winnipeg and others concerned about the city’s trees, on Dec. 7 when discussing the city’s preliminary 2022 budget.
“I have issues with what we’re doing,” Nason said of the current situation with regard to trees. “We’re getting very aggressive on our tree removal, but we only planted a fraction of what we took down. That won’t keep our canopy in place.”
Following a lengthy meeting, the standing policy committee on protection, community services recommended approval of the operating budget as presented, and recommended the capital budget be adopted with some amendments regarding specific park projects. Executive policy committee will consider the matter on Dec. 14, while city council will have a final discussion at its Dec. 16 meeting.
For more information, visit treespleasewinnipeg.com
Sheldon Birnie
Community Journalist
Sheldon Birnie is a reporter/photographer for the Free Press Community Review. The author of Missing Like Teeth: An Oral History of Winnipeg Underground Rock (1990-2001), his writing has appeared in journals and online platforms across Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. A husband and father of two young children, Sheldon enjoys playing guitar and rec hockey when he can find the time. Email him at sheldon.birnie@freepress.mb.ca Call him at 204-697-7112
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Getting creative with the canopy
Coun. Jason Schreyer (Elmwood-East Kildonan) said he has major concerns with the way the city has allocated funds for urban forestry.
“I’m extremely concerned with our canopy,” Schreyer said. “The city’s goal is to replace half the trees that they have to cut down on city property, in particular on city boulevards. Why is it their goal is to replace half? And we’re not even replacing half or a third. Am I supposed to say all is well for trees?”
In 2019, working with the Glenelm Neighbourhood Association, Schreyer committed $53,000 in funding from his ward’s land dedication reserve to replace trees lost on boulevards throughout Glenelm.
The initial funding provided for 59 new trees to be planted, and Schreyer said he remains committed to replacing trees lost in his ward.
“It’s an ongoing project,” Schreyer said.
The move was a first for city councillors, though others have followed his lead in other wards throughout Winnipeg.
“In terms of being creative, I did something that was sensible and logical,” he said. “But it shouldn’t be happening. It’s an indication that something’s not right in the central budgeting.”
– Birnie
Sheldon Birnie
Community Journalist
Sheldon Birnie is a reporter/photographer for the Free Press Community Review. The author of Missing Like Teeth: An Oral History of Winnipeg Underground Rock (1990-2001), his writing has appeared in journals and online platforms across Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. A husband and father of two young children, Sheldon enjoys playing guitar and rec hockey when he can find the time. Email him at sheldon.birnie@freepress.mb.ca Call him at 204-697-7112
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
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