More money needed for damaged trees
More than three years after a late-summer snowstorm dubbed “Snowtember” ravaged Calgary’s urban forest, a one-time cash injection to help city trees recover has run out and bureaucrats have hinted further funding will be required to maintain and grow the tree canopy.
Around half of the city’s estimated 500,000 public trees and 1.5 million private trees were damaged by the 2014 storm that downed branches and split trunks.
About 14,000 trees were deemed “high risk” and millions of kilograms of tree debris were removed from yards and streets across the city.
In response, city crews assessed and pruned more than 365,000 trees citywide and planted a total of 24,000 trees in 79 communities over three years, according to a report going before a city committee Wednesday. But with the recovery and restoration work from the event largely complete, the city is asking council to renew its commitment to growing Calgary’s tree canopy over the next few years.
Council originally approved $35.5 million from the city’s rainy day fund to repair and replace damaged trees. That one-time cash injection has largely run out — just under $1.9 million remains for the watering and pruning of the newly planted trees in 2018 — and the city says existing budgets “cannot sustain both the maintenance of existing trees and the growth of the urban canopy”.
Administration wrote that it would make a business case to council to fund the planting of 3,500 trees annually to sustain the existing canopy and another 3,500 trees each year to expand it in the next four-year budget cycle.
Coun. Druh Farrell — whose inner-city ward is home to many established neighbourhoods with mature trees — said the city had been underfunding tree replacement prior to the storm and that Calgary’s aging tree canopy has been identified as a problem.
Let the private sector plant their own trees and private landowners look after them
“The benefits of a healthy tree canopy for a city are well-known,” Farrell said. “They improve air quality, they improve property values — communities that have a mature tree canopy are valued higher than communities that don’t — they beautify our city and Calgarians love their trees, so we have a responsibility to continue to invest.”
But Coun. Sean Chu said he wants to see the city exhaust all possible private partnerships before seeking additional public funds to grow the tree canopy. He said he’d like to see developers plant trees in new communities and redevelopments.
“Let the private sector plant their own trees and private landowners look after them,” the Ward 4 councillor said .“I think that’ s the best way to go, before you come out asking for more money.”
In their report, administrators say they are also exploring “alternate funding partnerships” for the maintenance and growth of city trees.
Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra said he’s keeping an open mind ahead of the debate in council but added that he’s inclined to agree to renewed funding.
“Snowtember did a couple of things. It really sort of made it clear how important the urban forest is to Calgarians and how it’s something that we can’t take for granted and we have to actually take very good care of,” Carra said.
“The reality is we spent $35.5 million planting a lot of trees. We can either wait for the next (weather) event to cripple them, or let them die off from drought conditions, or we can put money into nurturing that investment and having it grow.”