Dave Demers wants to speed up plan to plant more
drought tolerant species
Chad
Pawson · CBC News · Posted: Jun 21, 2019
A
Vancouver Park Board commissioner wants to accelerate plans to protect
Vancouver's urban forest from drought.
Dave Demers, a landscaper who was elected in
October as a Green Party representative, wants the city to do more to make
sure that the varieties of trees it plants in parks and along streets can
handle hotter, dryer and longer summers in the city.
'I
think the situation is changing very fast and it's an emergency, we have to
really speed up and double down on what we are already doing and not let
go," he said. "The canopy, it's important, it's what makes the city
livable and we cannot let that go."
"To
make sure ... in 10, 20 years, 30 years from now we have a canopy that's
very resistant and healthy we really need to be careful what we plant and
where," he said.
Vancouver
is currently trying to increase the canopy of its urban forest, which is the
amount of leaf cover over a city seen from the sky.
Urban forest benefits
The
city had a 22 per cent canopy cover in 1995, but a combination of
development, pests and even property owners bent on improving their views by
cutting down mature trees caused that figure to decline to around 18 per
cent.
The
City of Vancouver is trying to plant 150,000 new trees across Vancouver in a
10-year span from 2010 to 2020 as part of its Urban Forest Strategy. There
are more than 450,000 park and street trees combined in Vancouver,
made up of around 500 different species.
A
healthy urban forest can help clean the air, slow climate change, ease strong
winds, conserve rainwater, provide wildlife habitat and contribute to a sense
of wellbeing for city residents.
But
Demers is worried that any gains will be snuffed out by the damage caused to
trees, especially native ones such as Westernred cedars, as drought becomes more common.
City
foresters are already doing work to assess kind of trees will thrive in
Vancouver's future forest. They not only have to contend with climate change,
but also encroachment from construction and development.
They are
working to figure out what species of trees, such as those from naturally
warmer regions in Oregon or Washington, will be best to plant here.
Demers wants
that work to speed up. He says he's working on a motion to present in July that
will strike a large committee to study the concept.
Demers also
wants the Park Board to look for ways to ease stresses on the urban trees, such
as putting in place other irrigation systems.
The City
of Vancouver now uses more than 4,000 special water bags that are
attached to trees to help give them steady water in the summer.
Signs
of weakened forests continue to pop up however. This week a teen was killed
near Sooke on Vancouver Island after a tree toppled on him.
Experts say dry conditions and wind can impact thestability of trees.
Meanwhile
a mature catalpa tree fell in strong winds in Vancouver's West End this
week, but the Park Board say the tree was otherwise healthy.
With
files from Timothé Matte-Bergeron. (c) 2019 CBC News
No comments:
Post a Comment