Leading with examples: A comparison of tree bylaws and urbangreen management policies between Canadian Cities

Leading with examples: A comparison of tree bylaws and urban green management policies between Canadian Cities

Mark McDonald

Advisors: Dr. Andrew Almas, Graeme Waine

Abstract

Figure representing three of the five cities observed to have securities on trees being protected during construction. The minimum values (min) and in blue, and the maximum values (max) are in green.

Urban forest protection, establishment and enhancement are key goals municipal governments are pursuing to help promote the benefits trees provide through their ecosystem services. Tree protection bylaws, tree planting programs, and urban forest management strategies are tools used by municipalities to help preserve and grow their urban forests. However, there can be a range of components and an inconstancy in language used in each city’s bylaws and management strategies. This range of components and language can also be found in urban forest governance policies across Canadian cities. Using open-sourced data from municipal websites, this study reviews tree bylaws, urban forest management strategies, and other green related plans/strategies/bylaws for 14 of the 23 local authorities of the Metro Vancouver Regional District (MVRD) in British Columbia (B.C.), Canada.

Three cities in Ontario (Oakville, London, and Guelph) and one in Nova Scotia (Halifax), are also reviewed for comparative purposes. Notable differences are observed across the cities in the MVRD. New bylaws and strategies that align with recent literature for tree planting and protection have only been adopted by a few of the cities studied. Tree protection during construction, tree replacement ratios, fines, and securities varied across all the cities researched. There is variation between the case study cities and the MVRD cities, which is due to different legislative constraints supporting more fines and specific regulations in Ontario versus B.C.. Although each city requires specific governance structures tailored for their community, creating documents that have standardized terms, as well as are easier to read, interpret, and access, can better facilitate the exchange of knowledge in the future. A gap federal and regional oversight in urban forest governance is addressed.

Keywords

urban forestry, tree bylaws, ordinances, management strategies, tree planting, and governance