Council pledges to protect, improve Burlington’s tree canopy

NEWS RELEASE
CITY OF BURLINGTON
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Yesterday, Burlington City Council approved the Urban Forest Master Plan and Woodland Management Strategy. Staff will use both as guiding documents to protect and improve Burlington’s tree canopy over the next 20 years.

The Urban Forest Master Plan and Woodland Management Strategy have five focus areas to help the City work collaboratively with partners and the community to protect and manage Burlington’s urban forest. These actions include:

1. Maximizing the life expectancy of trees by:
   1. expanding the City’s program capacities,
   2. formalizing the City’s maintenance standards and
   3. improving how the City monitors and reports on its trees.

Trees are most expensive to maintain when they are first planted as well as later in life when their health begins to decline. Keeping mature trees healthy for as long as possible makes the most of the City’s investment. 

2. Increasing canopy cover on both public and private land including woodlands through:
   4.  formal planting agreements with partners,
   5. issuing community tree planting grants and
   6. applying for provincial and federal grants. 
3. Developing best practices to manage climate change and invasive pests

This will be done through the creation of a city-wide biodiversity strategy, and other tactics. It costed $10 million to manage the invasive Emerald Ash Borer. By increasing biodiversity, the City can reduce the risk, impact and costs associated with invasive pests.

4. Expanding opportunities for the community to get involved

Meeting the goals set out in the Urban Forest Master Plan will be a shared responsibility. The City has identified an opportunity to establish a Community Tree Board and invite representatives from all wards, the Indigenous community, home building associations, environmental agencies and conservation authorities to collectively work together to implement the action items set out in the Urban Forest Master Plan.

5. Improving data analytics

Every five years, the City will share a State of the Urban Forest Report. It will measure maintenance activities and adapt to climate challenges. The last State of the Urban Forest Report was published in 2022.

City staff project that it will cost $300,000 a year over the next 10 years to implement the 47 action items in the Urban Forest Master Plan. Funding will be requested and managed through the City’s annual budget process.

For more information on the Urban Forest Master Plan, visit getinvolvedburlington.ca/ufmp

To learn more about opportunities to get involved in forestry related projects, visit and subscribe to: getinvolvedburlington.ca/urban-forestry

Quick Facts

• The City has an inventory of more than 71,000 public trees.
• As part of the City’s Urban Forest Master Plan and Woodland Management Strategy, the City will be working to maintain its current forest volume and increase its overall canopy cover to 35 per cent by 2060. This will require the City to plant 10,000 new trees and restore four hectares of woodland each year.
• Development of the City’s Urban Forest Master Plan began in 2022. It included a background study, the production of the draft plan, two phases of public engagement over a two-year period, financial planning and Council adoption.
• Burlington’s 2021 Asset Management Plan valued the City’s tree inventory at nearly $300 million.

Quotes

Mayor Marianne Meed Ward

“Our trees do much more than beautify our streets: they are critical natural assets that clean our air, cool our streets, absorb storm water, and more. Trees are natural infrastructure and that is just as important as our hard infrastructure, like roadways, water mains and facilities. The Urban Forest Master Plan and Woodland Management Strategy is a great example of the way we are shifting our perspective when it comes to valuing and managing our tree canopy as a natural infrastructure asset. We need to value and protect our urban forest, and by investing in protecting and increasing this asset we save higher costs down the road. Our community is on board with our plans. Our City staff have done a wonderful job on this master plan and strategy. I’ve personally participated in some of the forestry-led community engagement initiatives the Forestry Department has held and look forward to new opportunities for community members to get involved in forest protection, and planting initiatives.”

Steve Robinson, Manager of Urban Forestry

“Developing a shared, long-term vision for the City’s urban forest has been a great collaborative experience with the Burlington community. We look forward to kick-starting many of the action items identified in the plan, including introducing the community tree planting grant in greater detail later this year. I am excited for members of the community to take a closer look at our short and long-term goals outlined in the Urban Forest Master Plan, and hope it empowers them to get involved as well.”

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