Kitchener and Waterloo approved an urban forest strategy that plans for the development of trees in the two cities. Kitchener’s plan is titled It’s a Tree’s Life: Kitchener’s Sustainable Urban Forest Strategy 2019-2028. Waterloo’s initiative is the Urban Management Forest Strategy.
Both plans, created in 2019 and 2022 respectively, address the future of trees in the respective cities.
“Trees can promote mental and physical health and reduce morbidity and mortality in urban residents by providing psychological relaxation and stress alleviation,” the World Health Organization states on the Urban Green Spaces and Health webpage.
The two documents outline strategies and procedures for enhancing tree development and urban forests in both cities.
The two documents outline strategies and procedures for enhancing tree development and urban forests in both cities.
Kitchener’s plan includes involving community engagement in recognizing the value of trees, sustaining existing urban forests, growing the urban forests, communicating and providing information and involving neighbourhoods.
The strategy is to Plan for a sustainable urban forest, Engage community awareness and stewardship, Maintain proactive maintenance program for city trees, Protect the urban forest and Plant set up a tree canopy target.
Waterloo’s plan also includes environmental sustainability and climate action.
Maren Oelbermann is a professor in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo.
“Trees in an urban environment have many benefits environmentally and socially,” Oelbermann said.
According to Karen Landman, professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Guelph, trees in an urban setting provide an atmosphere that reduces stress, positively enhances a person’s emotional state, restores a person psychologically, maintains and reduces temperatures in the summertime, enhances animal habitats and regulates stormwater.
Landman said municipalities realize urban trees need to be protected.
“Creating strategic plans by conducting tree inventories, engaging with citizens and identifying goals and targets are proactive approaches that will guide the maintenance of the urban trees that currently exist, but will also increase the canopy and expand the many benefits that trees provide,” said Landman.
The urban forest canopy is the area that is covered with trees, when seen from a bird’s-eye view. Thirty per cent tree canopy cover is the minimum amount necessary for biodiversity.
In 2019, Kitchener had an urban forest canopy of approximately 27 per cent—a one per cent growth since 2015. The city has outlined a canopy target of 30 per cent in each ward by 2050. To reach this goal, new trees will be planted and trees presently existing will be expertly maintained.
Kitchener’s Forestry Project Manager, Hajnal Kovac, said that the goal of It’s a Tree’s Life: Kitchener’s Sustainable Urban Forest Strategy 2019-2028 is to focus on tree canopy cover.
This document is available to all Kitchener citizens; it invites community input and action in order to grow and further maintain Kitchener’s urban trees at kitchener.ca/trees.
The City of Waterloo similarly began the Urban Forest Management Strategy in fall 2022. At that time, Waterloo had a tree canopy cover of 32 per cent. The urban forest will continue to be maintained and grown into 2050 through the development of this strategy. Waterloo residents can review this document online and offer public opinions.
Besides interacting with these documents, residents of KW can help increase the tree canopy and intensify urban forests by caring for all trees and plants, learning about the trees and plants on their properties, advocating for continued growth and doing everything possible to sustain them and maintain their lives.
Kovac said over half of Kitchener’s tree canopy is on private property, which advocates can hellp protect through spreading awareness and tree values.
“Even small actions like watering young trees once a week, helping people rake leaves, or joining community events make a big difference in creating more tree-lovers,” Kovac said.
Some helpful resources for growing or maintaining trees on property include: Reep Greens, a tree consultation and planting service, and Origin Native Plants, a shop for plants native to Ontario.
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