Orillia’s Environmental Advisory Committee (EAC) wants to ensure future citizens can see the forest through the trees.
Last week, EAC members tabled a forward-thinking, comprehensive report, asking city councillors for long-term support of an ambitious multi-pronged plan aimed at restoring and rehabilitating Ben’s Ditch as well as improving and preserving the city’s trees.
“I am enthusiastic about all these suggested endeavours,” said Coun. Ted Emond.
Emond and his colleagues supported each of the elements in the bold EAC plan:
- Determine scope, draft and design an implementation work plan for the restoration and rehabilitation of Ben’s Ditch;
- Determine a long-term plan to improve and restore urban corridor cover and linkages;
- Design and implement natural re-vegetation of the City Centre parking lot;
- Identify dying and aging trees in city neighbourhoods and on select streets for replacement including stumping and grinding;
- Review the 2017-2018 Treebate program and make recommendations about future programs;
- Ensure staff from each department that has funding for trees/vegetation work to co-ordinate efforts and prepare an annual report on their tree program and costs to be reviewed by EAC prior to submission to council; and
- Secure a commitment from council, through the 2019 budget deliberations, to earmark $25,000 for tree canopy and natural vegetation initiatives.
In presenting the report and recommendations, EAC chair Michael Williams noted urban trees are “municipal assets” that must be cared for and protected.
“Urban trees and forests provide many environmental, social and economic benefits to the local community,” it said. “Because of their significant contribution to the well-being of urbanized landscapes, trees and the urban forest should be professionally managed and protected to preserve them now for all residents to benefit and increase the canopy for future generations to enjoy.”
Mayor Steve Clarke agreed. He said he is in “strong support” of the plan, noting trees are increasingly vital as the climate changes.
“We are experiencing record highs, extreme weather (and this is) what I’ve been led to believe we should come to expect,” said Clarke. “Most people in our country live in cities and I believe it will be up to cities to be involved in the mitigation of climate change.”
Clarke noted weather experts say the “maximum daily temperature in Ontario” is currently about 37 degrees (Celsius) and that is expected to rise to 44 by 2040. In addition, the number of “hot days over 30 degrees roughly runs 22 to 25 now during summer. That is expected to rise to 60-65” in 2040.
“One of the significant ways to mitigate that at the grass-roots level or tree-root level, if you will, is an increase in the tree canopy,” he noted. “Apparently, if done right, it can drop the temperature in a municipality by three to four degrees and certainly (the carbon monoxide) mitigation is significant.”
In addition, as the report to council notes, trees also are a “benefit to our storm water management in terms of the amount of water our trees can absorb and then filter out.”
It will take time and planning to properly carry out the recommendations, noted Williams.
He said EAC will “provide detailed research and recommendations for multi-year projects that can be undertaken over time to support the city’s long-term goals for tree canopy and natural vegetation conservation, restoration and protection.”
That would mean major streets and road corridors would be lined with native species “to provide cover and link up with other streets that are already substantially vegetated along the road allowances,” said the report.
“The ultimate long-term goal would be to have through streets lined with trees instead of just barren utility infrastructure, concrete sidewalks and hardscapes and thinly-grassed strips. This will not be easy, particularly given the utilities located along roadways, but it is possible to do over time.”
The report provides some possible starting points, referring to “urban deserts” such as Memorial Avenue, Coldwater Road and West Street.
Williams said the committee is realistic, acknowledging these are long-term initiatives. He said they also realize it’s imperative to consider utilities, snow storage and storm-water management throughout the process.
The other primary recommendation is the rehabilitation of Ben’s Ditch, a trench created in 1931 to drain the swampy land between Memorial Avenue and West Street, into Lake Simcoe.
Staff will work with the EAC to develop a project plan, assess funding and permitting requirements and create timelines. In the near term, the ditch should be cleaned up and siltation near outflows removed to improve draining and water flows.
“Ben’s Ditch is an asset,” said Coun. Ralph Cipolla, who noted the original multi-use recreation facility (MURF) planned for 255 West St. S., where the new recreation centre is being constructed, included a focus on Ben’s Ditch.
Williams said the EAC is cognizant of what “Ben’s Ditch can become many years down the road.” He noted EAC member Bob Bowles “is quite a champion of looking at how we could showcase Ben’s Ditch, ultimately, a few years down the road.”
Down the road, EAC also hopes the city’s tree cover will be greater. EAC members mapped the city, relying on 2,000 different points, and determined there is about 32 per cent tree cover. Their goal is, over time, to push that to 40 per cent.
Why is that important? The EAC report explains:
- Trees are frequently cited as the best storm-water management tool because of their ability to slow and filter stormwater runoff.
- Trees act as natural pollution filters;
- Tree roots remove nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, both by-products of urban living, which can pollute local streams and rivers. These root systems also help to hold the soil in place, decreasing the amount of sediment that enters local streams and rivers;
- Homeowners can save up to 58% on daytime air conditioning costs with properly-placed trees;
- Trees act as a carbon sink by removing the carbon from carbon dioxide and storing it as cellulose in the trunk while releasing the oxygen back into the air. A healthy tree stores about 13 pounds of carbon annually, or 2.6 tons per acre per year; and
- Estimates project that trees produce enough oxygen on each acre for 18 people every day, and absorb enough carbon dioxide on each acre, over a year's time, to equal the amount you produce when you drive your car 26,000 miles.
