City aims to grow tree canopy
Private property owners need to be enlisted in strategy
St. Catharines needs the help of private landowners willing to plant on their properties if it ever hopes to meet its goal of covering 30 per cent of the city’s area with trees.
Municipal works director Darrell Smith told city council St. Catharines has a 22 per cent tree canopy coverage — equal to about 21 square kilometres if all the trees in the city, both public and private, were placed together.
To meet the 30 per cent canopy goal set by council in 2017, the city needs to find another 11 square kilometres of planting space.
“If we were willing to turn every park that we have into trees, we would still be about 5.5 square kilometres short of what’s required,” Smith said.
“This shows that we cannot achieve this on our own. We need the private partners to work with us for us to make our tree canopy targets.”
The city has been working with the community to get more trees planted in private and public spaces.
Community, recreation and culture services director Phil Cristi said since launching the annual free tree giveaway in 2017, the city has distributed 7,000 trees, or about a 1,000 a year, to residents to plant on their private properties.
Cristi said another 1,400 trees are planted in parks when the city works with community partners like neighbourhood and community groups and various organizations. Cristi said the city is always looking for more partners.
Another 1,000 trees are planted by the city’s contractor at boulevards and by city staff at other parks.
Cristi said the survival rate of newly planted trees is about 94 per cent, which is in line with municipal
comparators.
Council previously directed staff to reach out to school boards, Brock University and Niagara College to form partnerships for planting. Cristi said to date they haven’t received commitments from any of those groups, but are working on it.
“We continue to follow up with them so that we can enlist their help and develop new strategies so we can plant more trees on their property,” Cristi said.
“We’re trying to impact the overall canopy by planting more trees on privately owned property.”
Cristi and Smith were speaking to councillors during an informal education and training session on the city’s tree strategy on Monday. Staff talked about what they are doing to get more trees planted and maintain the ones the city already has in the ground.
Deputy chief administrative officer Erin O’hoski said councillors have been vocal that a tree-planting strategy and implementation is a top priority.
Staff will be bringing a report to council later this spring to discuss the canopy target further.
“We understand from council and from the community that the tree canopy, and a healthy tree canopy, is of critical importance to people in the city of St. Catharines,” she said.
“We can assure you it’s of critical importance to staff, too,” she added.
Smith said there have been gains since the city adopted a tree management framework in 2017, including improvements in tree survival rates, the highly successful tree giveaways, and improved data collection on species due to technology like drones that can be flown in parks.
But he told council the city needs to transition from a reactive to a proactive maintenance model for its natural assets.
“We have made some strides, but there’s still a way to go,” he said. “A proactive maintenance model will help maintain a healthy tree structure, will eliminate and reduce risk associated with liabilities from dying trees and make our tree canopy more resilient.”
Smith said in choosing new trees, the city tries to find stock that is both hardy and diverse, as having different types of trees makes the canopy more resilient to invasive species.
St. Catharines is piloting a coir mat program this spring for newly planted young trees. The circular mats, which are made of coconut fibres, are being placed around the base of 200 trees in parks for moisture retention and protection.
The city will also have watering bags around every new tree that is planted, a requirement made in its last tree planting contract.