Tree-planting efforts questioned 1 year after highly destructive derecho storm

Some critics say the city isn't doing enough to get replacement trees in the ground a year after a dere‐ cho windstorm destroyed thousands of trees across Ottawa, and after Mayor Mark Sutcliffe campaigned on a promise to plant a mil‐ lion in his term.

In a typical year the city plants about 100,000 trees. They cool urban heat deserts, shade houses and se‐ quester carbon, and they in‐ crease property values and improve quality of life, among other benefits.

Sutcliffe said during last year's election campaign that he would get 250,000 trees planted annually.

In 2023, his first full year in office, the city will continue to plant somewhere around 100,000.

The routine figure — a year after what the city re‐ peatedly describes as "the most significant weather-re‐ lated forest disturbance in decades" — disappoints Paul Johanis, chair of the Green‐ space Alliance of Canada's Capital.

He's though. not surprised,

"There were no extra dol‐ lars in the budget this year for forestry. So it's hard to, you know, solve that conun‐ drum," Johanis said.

The forestry budget in‐ creased by 3.5 per cent from last year, to a little over $27 million. In comparison, the city's entire operating budget increased by about nine per cent from 2022, and Cana‐ da's rate of inflation from over the past year was 4.4 per cent.

Angela Keller-Herzog, exec‐ utive director of Community Associations for Environmen‐ tal Sustainability Ottawa, said it's going to take "a serious ef‐ fort" to restore canopy after increasingly powerful and fre‐ quent storms.

"I think that we need a big push from the mayor," she said.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's time to sit down at the table and roll up our sleeves and start making much more

concrete plans and allocating resources."

The city lost more than 2,500 trees in parks and right of ways in front of hous‐ es, which doesn't take into ac‐ count the many tens of thou‐ sands destroyed or cut down in forested areas, hedgerows, ravines and other treed places, which the city doesn't count individually.

Exactly how much tree cover was lost isn't yet known. Detailed scans of the entire National Capital Region began shortly after the dere‐ cho, but the analysis isn't ex‐ pected until late 2023, accord‐ ing to Jason Pollard, a section manager with the city's forestry department.

It'll show the change to the canopy ex‐ pressed as a percentage. In 2017, the last time the survey was done, about 31 per cent of city-owned land was cov‐ ered in trees.

The goal is 40 per cent. Tree-planting strategy to come

To get more canopy, the city is developing a tree-plant‐ ing strategy later this year. The strategy will be added "to slowly make a difference in terms of increasing the num‐ bers of trees planted and in‐ crease our tree canopy," Pol‐ lard said, adding trees incre‐ mentally over time.

It'll include a review of ex‐ isting tree-planting programs such as Trees in Trust, in which residents apply to the city to have trees planted on right of ways in exchange for watering them.

Since the derecho, 251 trees have been planted through Trees in Trust.

Keller-Herzog doesn't think it's enough, and hopes the city will find ways to more proactively help residents.

"There is a lot of unhar‐ nessed positive energy in communities in terms of iden‐ tifying plantable spaces," she said.

"It's a matter of priorities and a matter of planning."

Pollard said there's more work to come and responding to an event like the derecho takes time.

Staff "will be meticulous in terms of evaluating each and every site where disturbance occurred and looking to re-es‐ tablish and replant trees," he said.

When compared to the city's other pressures, such as affordable housing, Johanis said tree canopy is a number one issue for community as‐ sociations.

"We hear it everywhere, all the time, without even solicit‐ ing it," he said.

"Whether it gets translated through council to action, we'll see."

In an emailed statement, Sutcliffe didn't answer ques‐ tions about his campaign promise to plant one million trees.

Instead, the mayor wrote he's working on the treeplanting strategy with city staff, and engaging communi‐ ty groups, businesses, part‐ ners and schools to organize tree-planting events and vol‐ unteer will be an "impor‐ tant" piece.

"This not only instills a sense of pride and accom‐ plishment within our commu‐ nity but also [ensures] that the knowledge and passion for environmental steward‐ ship are passed down to fu‐ ture generations," Sut‐ cliffe wrote.

National Capital Com‐ mission

As for its lands, the Nation‐ al Capital Commission (NCC) said it's still in initial stages of recovery, and it's "too early to provide specific details about the derecho cleanup and sub‐ sequent steps."

Johanis said he thinks that's an indication of how "overwhelmed" and "swamped" the commis‐ sion is.

"I think this is a very, very big hit on their holdings, and even though the Greenbelt and managing and conserving it is part of their activity, they have other ... higher priori‐ ties," he said.

"Our big concern is that this will lead, at some point, to disposal of some NCC lands because they can't manage them."

For more images of the derecho's aftermath, browse this photo gallery: