Despite rising temperatures St. Catharines scales back commitment to grow urban tree canopy 

St. Catharines City Council has voted to cut its ambitious goal of 30 percent tree canopy coverage across the municipality, however, the target of planting 100,000 trees over ten years seems to still be in play. 

The issue of finding the best way to manage the urban forest in St. Catharines—work that culminated in an Urban Forestry Management Plan (UFMP) or Tree Management framework—has been discussed by St. Catharines councils going as far back as 2009. 

“It’s an important topic, one that has come back a number of times over my 14 years on council, and I think that's testimony to the fact that it is an important subject,” claimed Mayor Mat Siscoe during last Monday’s Council meeting.

For critics of the municipality’s attempts to increase its tree canopy, there has been a lot of talk with very little action to preserve urban trees— all the while development has been allowed to indiscriminately clear trees. 

While Council approved staff’s recommendation to endorse a reduced tree canopy coverage goal of 25 percent, the details of how this goal will be achieved is to be detailed in an “operationally-focused tree management report” expected later this year.

The previous 30 percent urban tree canopy coverage goal is in keeping with the minimum standard recommended by the International Society of Arboriculture and adopted by the Niagara Region. Nature Canada, the member-based environmental organization, recommends what is known as the 3-30-300 rule, where everyone should be able to see at least three trees from their home; all neighbourhoods within a municipality should have at least a 30 percent tree canopy; and all residents should have a greenspace of at least one hectare within 300 metres of where they live. 

Regardless of how it's measured, the green umbrella is a crucial asset for municipalities in the fight against climate change as it helps reduce heat, prevent flooding, and stores planet-warming carbon emissions. 

Tree canopy coverage in St. Catharines has improved, from between 15 and 17 percent in 2011 to 22.4 percent, as per a report at a February 2024 meeting of the Niagara Region’s Planning and Economic Development Committee. Improvements in the coverage have been a result of such initiatives as the private tree giveaway, a bi-annual effort of the municipality that regularly sees 1,000 trees provided to homeowners to plant on their properties; an increased effort to plant boulevard trees; and partnerships with community groups. 

The municipal initiatives result in approximately 3,400 trees planted annually, with a 94 percent survival rate, but as indicated by the staff presentation on Monday, it is simply not enough to achieve a 30 percent coverage goal. Taking into account “land constraints” in the municipality, coupled with ongoing local efforts, the 25 percent coverage is seen as “more realistic and achievable” by staff.

Tree giveaway events hosted by the City of St. Catharines result in approximately 3,400 trees planted annually.

(City of St. Catharines) 

At a Special Council meeting in April, staff had indicated that there was approximately 5.5 square kilometres of municipal land that could be used for increased tree coverage. On Monday it was revealed that further analysis of City-owned land without “something already on it” equates to approximately three-square kilometres. While there could be additional plantings on City parkland, the demand for other recreational amenities, such as sports fields and splash pads, has to be considered.

Regarding boulevard plantings, staff concluded that it was not realistic to count on boulevard trees to improve the tree canopy cover by any significant rate due to the competing presence of utilities, the challenge of providing enough space for sufficient rooting of the new plantings and, despite a 96 percent survival rate, the impact of winter control measures. Staff also outlined the policy is to not plant a boulevard tree if the abutting private property owner is opposed to the tree’s presence, as neglect by the homeowner often decreases survivability of the tree.

The other constraint on public land is the municipality’s obligation to fulfill its housing pledge to the Province to create 11,000 housing units by 2031. As a result, any surplus vacant or underused City-owned land is likely to be given over to the recently formed Municipal Development Corporation to attempt to accommodate housing.

Staff described the housing initiative, in the related report to Council, as “the higher-order strategic priority” for the municipality at this time, despite Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Erin O’Hoski’s comment that a tree planting strategy had received the “most green sticky dots”, a reflection of the process where councillors place dots beside a priority, during their strategic planning exercise in late 2023.

Monday’s meeting provided some clarity on numbers related to achieving various canopy coverage targets, though staff repeatedly indicated that more details would be forthcoming in the next report. Nonetheless, Phil Cristi, the City’s Director of Community, Recreation and Culture Services, indicated that to achieve the 30 percent tree canopy target there would need to be roughly 760,000 trees planted. There is not enough land within the city boundary to achieve such numbers, according to Cristi.

While staff was clear that the 30 percent tree canopy coverage was not realistic, they considered another aspirational target of Council more achievable and arguably exceeded its ambitious goal.

In 2022, Councillor Kevin Townsend (Ward 3 - St. Georges)  introduced a motion directing staff to develop a workplan that would facilitate the planting of 100,000 trees over the course of 10 years. Townsend’s motion was in response to the federal government’s 2020 pledge to plant two billion trees by 2030.

In recommending the reduction in tree canopy coverage to 25 percent, staff was of the opinion that it would allow for the municipality to “proceed with the 100,000 tree initiative”, though the numbers appear even more ambitious than originally contemplated by Townsend. 

Darrell Smith, the City’s Director of Municipal Works, estimated that 260,000 trees would need to be planted over the next six years to achieve the 25 percent canopy coverage, to which Councillor Townsend remarked, “that sounds like a lot more than 3,400 trees annually” and questioned whether the now-reduced goal of 25 percent was even achievable.

“[T]hat will be the subject of the report that's coming back in quarter three. The report will outline target years and the resources to hit those targets so that the council has an understanding of what's required. The closer that the target year is, the more annual resources that you would have to put towards that goal to meet that target,” responded Director Smith.

One of the resources that will be necessary is adequate staffing. During the municipality’s 2023 budget process, Mayor Siscoe had proposed that the forestry section of the Municipal Works department be eliminated with the service contracted out. The proposal did not go forward with an amendment to the budget to keep the service “in house”. During Monday’s meeting, Smith noted the presence of Rory Bourgeois of CUPE 150 in the gallery and indicated that he had committed to discussions with the union for their input into the future report.

One thing was made clear during the Council meeting, that even with the scaled back tree canopy goal, the 25 percent cannot be achieved by municipal plantings alone and will require greater plantings on private land.

Council members offered various suggestions on how to achieve the lofty goal, including possible community partnerships to be investigated.

Councillor Greg Miller (Ward 1 - Merritton) wondered if the numbers could be increased in the annual tree giveaway. Director Cristi indicated that there could be capacity, especially during the spring, for higher volumes, but indicated that staff was “maxed out” at two giveaways per year.

Councillors Joe Kushner (Ward 2 - St. Andrew’s) and Caleb Ratzlaff (Ward 4 - St. Patrick’s) both raised the possibility of “de-paving” under-utilized parking areas.

Councillor Carlos Garcia (Ward 6 - Port Dalhousie) asked whether the City had estimates on what private land could contribute to the canopy and whether tree clearing by private development had a significant impact in reducing the canopy.

Director Smith assured Council that staff do their due diligence with new development applications, always asking for trees and requiring arborist reports on ways to save trees on the property. He did point out the pragmatic realities that “just like us in our parks, developers are trying to balance out the different demands on their property.” He noted that staff would be bringing back a report on the possibility of a private tree bylaw. A previous effort to enact such a bylaw in 2019 was ultimately rejected after public opposition.
 

Questions still remain around staffing and resources to meet the new 25 percent tree canopy coverage goal adopted by St. Catharines council.

(Alexis Wright/The Pointer Files) 

Staff did provide some hope in getting greater buy-in from the private sector through a possible incentive program to encourage green builders. The program would be funded from the $25.7 million the municipality secured through the Housing Accelerator Fund—the $4 billion federal fund to help alleviate the current housing supply shortage. 

Despite the scaling back of the tree canopy target, council members were supportive of the staff recommendation. Only Councillor Bruce Williamson (Ward 6 - Port Dalhousie) voted against it. He understood the “limited parameters” the City was dealing with but did not like backing off from the commonly recommended 30 percent tree canopy percentage. Councillor Williamson also expressed hope that the municipality could take a “co-operative approach” to a possible private tree bylaw, implying that the previous effort failed due to the “heavy handed” nature of the proposed 2019 bylaw.

Council received one delegation related to the matter on last Monday’s agenda. Lindsay Taylor, the out-going Sustainability Director of the Downtown BIA (Business Improvement Area), attempted to strike a positive tone, but did question the lack of current mapping and baseline statistics associated with staff’s recommendations. She recommended that the staff broaden their consideration of lands and focus on the reforestation of natural areas in the community.

“[I] implore you to be ambitious, to think big. No one's going to come after you with pitchforks for not reaching this goal, but we will definitely be disappointed in you if you don't try,” she said. 

Future staff reports will determine how ambitious the effort will be, but Director Smith stressed that the City remains committed to growing the tree canopy. The hard part will be committing the resources to accomplish the planting of 260,000 trees city-wide, especially if the target is to have the plantings completed by 2030. 

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