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

By Kristy Nease
CBC News
May 20, 2023
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, Canada East

Some critics say the city isn’t doing enough to get replacement trees in the ground a year after a derecho windstorm destroyed thousands of trees across Ottawa, and after Mayor Mark Sutcliffe campaigned on a promise to plant a million in his term. In a typical year the city plants about 100,000 trees. They cool urban heat deserts, shade houses and sequester carbon, and they increase 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. …To get more canopy, the city is developing a tree-planting strategy later this year. …When compared to the city’s other pressures, such as affordable housing, Paul Johanis, chair of the Greenspace Alliance of Canada’s Capital said tree canopy is a number one issue for community associations.

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