New tree bylaw due to take root in the fall

Studies being conducted on the health of city’s urban forest canopy

Peterborough residents are being asked to continue giving the city 72 hours of notice before removing a tree from their properties — at least until next fall, when a new tree bylaw will likely be introduced.

In March 2019, council repealed a tree bylaw from 2017 that required people to get city permission before removing or even pruning a tree on private property.

Many citizens found the bylaw too restrictive and complained to their councillors that they were forced to wait a long time for permission to cut down their own trees.

Though the bylaw was meant to protect the urban forest, council voted to rescind it and come up with a new one after consulting both citizens and arborists.

In the meantime, council voted to allow people to remove trees from their own property, provided they advise staff three days in advance (so staff could document the extent of tree removal).

That still applies, though it was expected that consultation would be done and a proposed new bylaw could be presented to city councillors last fall.

That never happened: five public meetings were carried out last fall instead, in addition to citizen surveys and interviews with arborists.

Now that the public feedback has been collected, city staff is awaiting results of new field studies that are still being conducted this summer.

The studies are expected to yield data on the composition and health of the urban tree canopy, according to a new staff report, and then staff will be ready to present council with a proposed new bylaw in fall 2020.

Arborists told city council last year they were unhappy not to have been consulted on the 2017 bylaw, but city staff has since interviewed local treecare specialists either in person or by phone.

City staff has also learned from citizens that the idea of

issuing permits for tree removals might be acceptable to homeowners, but they don’t want to have to ask the city whether they can prune their trees (so that part will be left out of any new bylaw, the report states).

In the year between March 2019 and March 2020, there had been no restriction on tree removal on private property — and the staff report states that 2,563 trees were removed during that period (of which 1,695 were healthy). Councillors will hear more Monday at a virtual committee meeting, which will be streamed live on the city’s website starting at 6 p.m.