General Urban Waterloo Updates and Rumours

[danbrotherston]

All of the trees have been replaced now.

Why do Canadian cities seem to fail across the board to have mature tree canopies in urban areas? We have countless old suburbs with them, but none of our just-as-old urban areas have them. Is it just for a lack of trying, or some other challenge that other countries don't face?

Trees aren't the only factor, but it's hard to call such bleak environments home for very long.

This is super long ago now but I remember hearing about Dutch Elm Disease in Montreal which was a decade before I was a kid... there are probably multiple factors.

There are many factors...Dutch Elm Disease, Emerald Ash Borer, which are mostly just bad luck, but also things about our built environment. We use literal TONS of salt on our roads which harm trees long term. We also just have very little space for those trees (all the space is taken by roads), and many heavy vehicles on those roads. We have to install proper soil cells for them. We do lots of construction and tear up our roads all the time damaging roots further

And frankly, we just don't invest, it wasn't a priority to have trees.