U of T helps launch an army of tree lovers

David Grant is passionate about Toronto’s trees. He’s particularly fond of the majestic silver maple that stood outside his Cabbagetown home. But he had never thought much about how to care for it – until three years ago when the ice storm hit.

Surveying the downed branches in his own yard and along his street, Grant wondered about the millions of other trees across Toronto. Did his fellow homeowners know how to care for them in the wake of such a damaging event?

Soon after, Grant met Sandy Smith, a professor in the Faculty of Forestry, who had an interesting idea: students from Smith’s graduate class in urban forest conservation would work with Grant and other Cabbagetown residents to devise a long-term plan for the care of their community’s trees. Residents themselves could then follow the preservation plan.

“It was like a dream come true,” says Grant.

Now, he is looking to replicate the success of Cabbagetown Releaf – the non-profit association he founded to carry out the plan – in other communities. And, once again, he has enlisted Smith’s help.

Early in October, Smith and a colleague, Danijela Puric-Mladenovic, spent the day training about 25 Torontonians in the basics of forest management at an event organized by Cabbagetown Releaf. The hope is that these newly trained “citizen foresters” will fan out across the city and set up urban forestry groups in their own communities.

“This is David’s vision to educate and build awareness, so the average person knows about the health of trees,” says Smith. “Governments can’t afford all the work that needs to be done.”

Smith likens “citizen foresters” to “citizen scientists,” a movement that has gained steam in recent years to involve members of the public in science projects, ranging from counting butterflies to tracking bird migration. A citizen scientist group in Toronto monitors the health of the Rouge River in Scarborough. Citizen foresters would do something similar for the city’s trees.

The effort aims to protect a valuable investment. A 2014 report by the TD Bank Group estimates that Toronto’s 10 million trees are worth about $700 each, or $7 billion in total. According to the report, the urban forest provides Toronto residents with more than $80 million worth of environmental benefits and cost savings each year, or about $125 per household.

These benefits include improved air quality, better storm water management, reduced flooding, and cooler homes and businesses. Trees also absorb carbon dioxide, which helps to slow climate warming. The study didn’t put a dollar value on less tangible benefits, such as the enjoyment people get from parks, but Grant sees these as no less important.

“Nature helps people de-stress,” he says

Learn more about Smith's urban forestry efforts

Looking ahead, Grant has no shortage of ideas about how to expand the program. He wants to encourage community members to grow trees from seeds and then have an annual seedling giveaway. He thinks there’s good potential for working with schools to have students grow seedlings and share these with neighbourhoods that need more trees.

He hopes that one day Toronto might be home to a small army of citizen foresters tending to the urban canopy.

“We need to protect what we have,” says Grant, “and to start doing things for future generations.”

Learn more about the Citizen Foresters

(This story originally ran in U of T Magazine)

Saving Toronto's ravines: forestry researchers track ecological changes

lavende4 — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 14:14:13 +0000

Saving Toronto's ravines: forestry researchers track ecological changes

lavende4 Wed, 07/20/2016 - 10:14

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Researcher Anqi Dong in the Rosedale Ravine (all photos by Noreen Ahmed-Ullah)

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Author legacy

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Topic

As the city considers a ravine strategy plan, �ؿ�ζSM forestry professor Sandy Smith and her students are tracking the ecological changes of a Rosedale ravine – and they're alarmed by what they’re finding so far.

Graduate student Anqi Dong says non-native species of trees – including the notorious Norway Maple, a prolific seed producer – have multiplied across Rosedale’s Park Drive Ravine. They have jumped from 10 per cent to 40 per cent of the tree population over the last 40 years, forcing the overall diversity of trees in the ravine into a dramatic decline.

Smith, who was part of the City of Toronto’s ravine strategy advisory group last year, and her students are working with community activists and nature enthusiasts to raise funds for further in-depth studies of this area, which abuts Evergreen Brickworks, along with other Toronto ravines.

They’re hoping the results of their work will influence the city to prioritize ecological integrity while drafting its revitalization plan for Toronto’s ravines.

Listen to Prof. Smith on CBC's Metro Morning

“If ecology isn’t seen to be the underpinning of the ravines, then those ravines won’t last long in terms of their ability to provide all the goods and services we know these green spaces provide,” Smith said. “One of the issues for ecologists is homogenization. These ecosystems are going to get simpler and simpler, and this means you’ll get fewer tree species, fewer plant species, and fewer animal species.

“Eventually these will disappear as well, with nothing left but the soil blowing away in the wind. If we don’t acknowledge and identify what’s important to retain, we’re going one way down a bleak pathway to homogenization.”

Smith’s students including including Dong, Eric Davies, Alex Stepniak, and Jane Michener have begun working with nature enthusiasts and community groups to raise funds for further research of the ravines. They’ve developed their own website, www.torontoravines.org to raise public awareness.

Read the Metro story about their efforts

This year they’ve increased the number of plots they’re studying in the ravine to 11, going in with a fine-tooth comb to track both the canopy and the under-story vegetation. They plan to add mammals to the study next year.

They’re also appearing at pop-up venues around the city where planners and forestry experts are soliciting public input on the city’s ravine strategy plan to let Toronto residents know about their findings and ongoing research.

Amateur naturalists Dale Taylor and Paul Scrivener raised funds back in 1977 for the initial study of the ravine by U of T’s botany department. The two men had both grown up along the Rosedale and Moore Park ravines and wanted to document the biodiversity of the ravine. This time around, they’re working to help raise funds for a comparative study conducted by Smith’s students in the Faculty of Forestry.

“The Toronto community has a fabulous vision to keep its ravines natural,” Taylor said. “But the healthy natural state of these ravines is threatened all the time. What these studies are trying to do is get at the changes that are affecting the ravine. We hope that will lead to some recommendations on sound ravine management. Ultimately as the city is undergoing its own exercise, I’m sure we will have findings to feed into it.”

The City of Toronto says it expects to have the ravine strategy finalized by spring 2017.

Matthew Cutler, spokesman for Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation, said that while ecological integrity may not appear as such in a draft of the plan released this summer, the strategy calls for developing and implementing management plans for environmentally significant areas and identifying best practices for building projects to ensure natural ecosystems are protected.

“It’s the No. 1 priority,” Cutler said. “It’s important to keep in mind that the consultation draft is written in language that the public can understand. The two words ‘ecological integrity’ might not appear, but that principle is very loud and clear in all of the actions.”