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Tree removal rates have escalated

Urban forestry Part 1
tree
American elm showing wilt and premature leaf-colouring and drop due to drought stress. Photo by Keith Anderson

The City of North Battleford has had a reputation as being a green city on the prairies for several decades.

Thanks to the foresight of some past politicians and administrators, along with some dedicated foremen and staff, the City maintained and expanded the urban forest to level that was exemplary to other prairie municipalities.

An urban forestry definition, adopted by Canadian Urban Forest Network at the U. of Toronto and Tree Canada in Ottawa, is: "Urban forestry is the sustained planning, planting, protection, maintenance and care of trees, forests, green space and related resources in and around cities and communities for economic, environmental, social and public health benefits for people.”

The definition includes retaining trees and forest cover as urban populations expand into surrounding rural areas and restoring critical parts of the urban environment after construction.

In addition, urban and community forestry includes the development of citizen involvement and support for investments in long-term on-going tree planting, protection and care programs.

Urban forestry in growing zone No. 2 is challenging to say the least. Not only are we limited in the tree species we can successfully grow here, we also experience harsh winters and short growing seasons with minimal precipitation. The resulting growth rate of prairie trees is painstakingly slow. It takes several decades to get a tree to a size that provides a canopy.

Many prairie cities including North Battleford have or had, tree removal policies that consider the length of time it takes to grow a tree. The policy generally would have guidelines such as, if a tree is dead, severely diseased or dangerous, it will be removed, however, if it has 40 per cent or less deadwood, it is a candidate for pruning and maintaining as opposed to removal.

It seems as though these guidelines are receiving less priority recently as there have been many total tree removals, which in the past, would have just had the deadwood removed.

Tree planting and replacement does not seem to be keeping pace with the number of trees removed.

Further, trees are made up of approximately 60 per cent water. In these drought years, it takes many seasons of dedicated supplemental watering to keep trees healthy and growing. Mother Nature always gets the last word. If it’s droughty, you better get watering to retain the needed water content. Trees that were planted in the last 10 years are now showing severe signs of decline due to the effects of drought and insufficient supplemental watering.

The bottom line is, it takes minutes to cut down a tree that took decades to grow. Tree removal may be necessary at times for safety reasons or for forest health and disease reasons, however it must be managed through the sustained planning, planting, protection, maintenance and care of trees. Trees on the prairies, that take this long to grow, deserve the benefit of the doubt and removal should be considered a last resort as opposed to a first response.

“The best time to plant a tree is 30 years ago, the second best time is right now.”

— Anderson is executive director of the International Society of Arboriculture – Prairie Chapter