Greenspace-challenged Centretown has been a key beneficiary of a citywide tree-planting program that should be renewed by Ottawa’s new council, says Somerset Coun. Diane Holmes.
The four-year program to distribute 100,000 trees to homes, parks, schools and other public spaces across the city is officially wrapping up this fall. Orders can still be placed on the city’s website for new plantings in 2011, but delivery will depend on renewal of the popular program during budget-making later this year.
The Trees, Reforestation and Environmental Enhancement (TREE) Program cost $3.8 million between 2007 and 2010, averaging an annual price tag of $1.05 per taxpayer, according to city officials.
Holmes says she has “always supported the TREE Program” and that Centretown residents are typically “keen on taking part” as a way to enhance the environment of downtown neighbourhoods.
Holmes says trees paid for by the program have beautified Centretown parks, schoolyards and streets, including O’Connor, Somerset, and Metcalfe.
She’s backing the renewal of the program as a way to continue greening the city core, noting that “trees have a difficult time surviving in Centretown” because of urban dangers such as being damaged by snowplows or dying from exposure to large quantities of road salt in the winter.
While the city’s website reports that all 100,000 trees have been planted during the program’s four-year run, the exact impact on Centretown is not clear.
The registration database for the TREE program doesn’t currently organize information about how many trees were planted in each ward, says Tracey-Lee Schwets, senior landscaping architect with the city.
Schwets says ward-by-ward program summaries are a possibility but probably won’t be created until sometime next year.
Holmes says the benefits of having more trees in Centretown include higher property values and increased shade during the hot summer months.
She says she will “absolutely” vote in favour of future projects that bring more trees to Centretown.
Junya Devine, a parent volunteer with the Jack Purcell Park Project, says she is counting on the city’s promise of nine trees next spring to help complete a major rehabilitation effort at the site on Elgin Street.
The project is aimed at making the park accessible to “children of all abilities” and replacing dying ash trees affected by an infestation of the emerald ash borer beetle.
Pending budget approval, the nine trees are to be planted in the park by the city and paid for through the Community TREE Planting Grant Program, Devine says.
If the city’s 2011 budget does not provide money for the continuance of the TREE Program, Devine says the park project won’t have another immediate option for putting in those nine trees.
She says that without the trees, Jack Purcell Park, adjacent to the Elgin Street Public School, will turn into “a concrete playground” within the next five years because of the beetle infestation.