08-28-2017, 11:08 AM
(08-28-2017, 10:43 AM)MidTowner Wrote: Waterloo Region does not have a massive urban forest. The tree canopy in Kitchener is a little less than Toronto's- Cambridge's is about the same. We're hardly excelling.
Individual trees should probably not often prevent development, it's true, but around here they never do. A mature tree is a lot more valuable than the tree that would replace it, since the survival of that replacement tree is not guaranteed, and the plantings nowadays are less diverse (this is something that I think is being acknowledged more and more).
I think Waterloo Region is fairly green, but we certainly shouldn't congratulate ourselves on our "massive urban forest." There's a long way to go, and we're behind other cities where the urban forest really is prioritized.
I would agree our urban forest is not terribly substantial. Even in the townships, it's quite depleted. Trees for Woolwich has been attempting to reverse this trend, but the ash borer has been devastating there as well.
I am curious how you know plantings today are less diverse? I realize that historically they have been pretty much a monoculture (mostly ash, unfortunately), but I thought we'd realized how terrible an idea that is, and would now be planting a more diverse population.