news

Neighbourwoods sat down with Mat recently and posed some questions that we know readers are wondering:

Does the Township use the Inventory Data we’ve collected over the years and if so, how?

Yes.  We sure appreciate having the data on so many of our trees and use it in 3 ways:

1. We have established 7 community maintenance pruning zones in CW, and tackled Zone 1 first because that is where we had the most inventory data. Knowing the structural health of our trees helps determine fair pricing for our pruning contractor.
2. Our chief mandate in planting is diversity to mitigate the risk of widespread disease in one species.  Because of Neighourwoods, we know that we have a large number of Maple trees, so we can make informed decisions about what to plant to start to build a more diverse urban forest.
3. When I am asked to look at a specific tree, the more historical data I have about a tree, the better I can understand the overall health of the tree. 

Speaking of planting, we are seeing lots of new street trees – what’s being planted and how many?

About 70% native species like Oaks, Hackberries and Serviceberries- which as small stature trees make them ideal under hydro lines. About 30% are non-native for 2 reasons; because there is a limited supply of native stock and some are, frankly, hardier for some sites– like the Japanese Zelkova (related to an Elm) and Katsura trees.

We’ve planted about 200 street trees in 2017 and another 200 in 2018 and plant to put in the same this year.

I’d like to remind residents if they have an irrigation bag around their tree, please fill it about once a week during hot dry weather, to help the tree get established.

What is the success rate of street trees?

About 90% – and we count on homeowners to do their part by watering, mulching and pruning their baby trees correctly.

I know the township is also planting in naturalized areas – can you elaborate?

I’ve organized some community planting days with help from the corporate sector which sends volunteers and provides some of the funding needed to purchase plant material.

In 2018,  90 trees and shrubs were planted at the Fergus Sportsplex with the Rotary Club of Fergus Elora and Green Legacy

• 290 trees and shrubs along the Trestle Bridge Trail near Southridge park with support from Vitner’s Cellar, CanSafe – Safety Zone Fergus, and Friends of the Grand.
• 141 trees and shrubs beside the Cottontail Trail with help from Union Gas, Dillon Consulting and Green Legacy.

And this spring, we planted 276 trees and shrubs at Elora Meadows Park, Harper Crescent Park and the Gzowski Street trailhead of the Elora Cataract trail with support from RBC and Green Legacy.

The Ash trees seem to be coming down faster now – is that true?

Yes. We are about halfway through the 12 year Emerald Ash Borer infestation and ash mortality cycle.  We are seeing larger numbers of ash trees declining this year than previous years and expect even more next year.  We’ve lost about 1,500 so far and 50 more are slated for removal next month. Our goal is to re-plant at a ratio of 2:1 but because it is so busy now, the rate is closer to 1:1, but we’ll make up for the trees down  the road.

What about those drastically pruned Ash trees on Chalmers Street in Elora?

They will be coming down this year.

For homeowners who would like a new street tree, what should they do?

Call me.  We’ll check out the site for overhead wires and ensure there is adequate soil volume, we’ll put them on the list and get to them as fast as possible.

And we have to ask the age-old question:  is a public tree bylaw in our future?

There is staff and council support for it – it’s coming along.  For one thing, it will be helpful for giving enforcement teeth to tree protection zone requirements outlined in our Public Forest Policy.

Thank you Mat.

People are welcome to call me at 519-846-9691 x 218 or email me at malain@centrewellington.ca.

If you are curious to learn more about the history, biology and folklore of some of our community’s celebrated trees, you will be interested to hear that Neighbourwoods has produced an online interactive tool that you can access on your laptop, desktop and mobile phone.

This new hands-on Story Map was inspired by last year’s Tour the Trees event, where cyclist Rick Goodfellow lead local peddlers around the community to learn about notable trees and sites. Now, regardless of whether you are cycling, walking, or simply sitting in your own home, you can experience the tour for yourself, fit with stories, pictures, and video content about each tree.

From mid-July until late August, all the trees on the map will be identified by a laminated sign with a QR code.  Those with the QR app on their phone will be one quick scan away from accessing everything you need to know about each tree.

Neighbourwoods is grateful to Greg Wolowich, GIS Planning Coordinator for the Township for his tech support and to the Township for their funding under the Community Impact Grant program.

For more information about the story map please visit eloraenvironmentcentre.ca, and follow us at @eloraenvironmentcentre on Facebook and Instagram.

To access the story map, visit:  https://qrgo.page.link/Dsma1

Summer is finally upon us in Centre Wellington, and for the tenth consecutive year Neighbourwoods volunteers and summer students will be conducting tree inventory on residential streets in Salem. Neighbourwoods identifies, measures and assesses the health of our boulevard, park, front yard, and side yard trees. To date, volunteers have collected detailed data on more than 11,000 trees in our community, helping to contribute to the grand total of 100,000 trees inventoried across Ontario.

Be sure to keep an eye out for our volunteers wearing bright yellow Neighbourwoods t-shirts, and if you have any questions email us at neighbourwoods@eloraenvironmentcentre.ca.

Thank you to all who joined us in launching our carbon offset program! June 1st, Tree Trust saw its first mature tree cared for by Baum Tree Care, MW Tree Service, Full Circle Tree Care, and Out of Your Tree Care. These arborists worked to extend the life of the Sugar Maple, thereby prolonging its ability to sequester carbon.

We would like to thank MP Michael Chong for showing support, as well as Jason Thompson for being the first to offset his flight, and thereby adopting a quarter of the tree.

If you would like to offset your flight or learn more, visit TreeTrust.ca or click on the “Carbon Offset” Tab.

Neighbourwoods 2019 Spring Tree Talk: “raresites: Land Conservation in the 21st Century”

On March 26, our guest speaker Tom Woodcock gave us an in-depth look into the ‘what, where, when, why, and how’ of the rare Charitable Research Reserve.

What is rare?
The Reserve is an area of over 900 acres, on the Grand River between Kitchener and Cambridge. Its mandate is to preserve and steward ecologically significant land in Waterloo and Wellington Counties. A sampling of the 24 different habitats under protection include old-growth Carolinian forest; floodplains; meadow and prairie; bird and turtle breeding grounds; and stops along bird migration routes.
Rare’s conservation activities comprise three areas:

• Conservation: including tree planting, management of invasive species, and trail maintenance
• Scientific research: a living laboratory that hosts environmental research projects and monitoring
• Education: public events, environmental education programs, volunteer opportunities, and recreation such as hiking trails, to enable the public to learn about and value their natural surroundings.

Rare is a non-profit organization that depends on volunteers and is funded mainly by donations, and some funding from the region for specific projects.

Why does rare do what it does?
We are all familiar with the threats to land and forests from an increasing human population: consumption of living space, food, water, and resources; climate change; loss and degradation of habitat; and pollution.

From one perspective, ‘undeveloped’ land can appear to be inactive, inert, and of no value until a commercial developer comes along to build something on it. From a more accurate perspective, natural landscapes actively provide a huge variety of ‘ecological services’, including water filtration, flood and erosion control, removal of air pollutants, recycling of nutrients and renewal of soil, pollination, absorption of greenhouse gases, and support for the biodiversity that makes this all possible. These ‘services’ of course benefit not just humans, but all other species on which we and the earth’s ecosystem depend.

To get a sense of how valuable these services are, ask yourself for example: how do I get clean water? Ecoservices are ‘free’, but they require the space and time to do their jobs. If ecoservices disappear, replacing them comes at a cost. Consider for example the costs of building a water treatment plant, paying for flood insurance or damage, healthcare costs due to air and water pollution, or the need for more and more fertilizers and pesticides to compensate for diminishing soil quality.

The message is that we are depleting the earth’s natural ecoservices at an unsustainable rate – we are using more than the environment can provide. ‘Half Earth’ is a concept proposed by Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson, which states that we need to set aside and protect one half of the earth’s natural habitats in order to maintain the biodiversity that is essential for the earth’s ecoservices to be sustainable.

What are some solutions?
The answer to the question ‘why conserve land?’ became clear. We need to achieve a balance between usage and preservation of natural resources. Rare supports this goal by:

• Stewarding land that is already under protection, in perpetuity
• Reconnecting fragmented landscapes so that habitats are not disrupted and species have increased chances of survival
• Acquiring more lands for preservation, through purchase or donation. For example, a current project is underway to build a conservation corridor along the Eramosa River, that would extend from Eden Mills through Rockwood, Guelph, and the Eramosa Valley. This project has the potential to almost double the area of land under protection by rare.

Underpinning all of these efforts is the need to engage and educate the public as to the value of natural landscapes, not only for their ecoservices but for the enjoyment and well-being they provide.

In case all of these problems seem too large to resolve, we can remind ourselves of Tom’s decription of ecological activity as: ‘little actions or processes happening an unimaginable number of times’. With that in mind, the small efforts of each of us can potentially add up to a large turnaround in the ways we use and preserve our natural landscapes.

For more reading:
https://raresites.org/
https://www.half-earthproject.org/

Neighbourwoods thanks our 2018-19 Tree Talk Sponsor, the Elora-Salem Horticultural Society,
for their support.

Community maintenance pruning is planned for April 13, 2019 in the Elora Meadows neighbourhood. Juvenile trees located within the Township owned road right-of-way may be pruned in order to improve their structure and future health. The pruning will take place between 8:30am and 12:00pm by Neighbourwoods Citizen Pruners accompanied by two to three members of the Centre Wellington Arborist Association.

If you are interested in volunteering please contact Neighbourwoods.

It was a full house for Neighourwoods second annual Urban Forest Training workshop in Elora this May.  This year’s topic:  How to Conduct a Tree Inventory. Participants joined us from Perth County, Elmira and Waterloo, along with a dozen new Neighbourwoods volunteers.

The Workshop included a mix of class room and field work as participants got acquainted with the citizen scientist program developed by U of Toronto.  The 31 elements collected about each tree being inventoried were broken into 2 categories: objective (species, height, diameter for example) and subjective (trunk and branch scars, number of broken branches, etc).  Some basic tree ID tips and common tree species were covered. Following lunch, participants spent some time to practice assessing some trees using clinometers and DBH tapes.

Reviews were positive and we were really pleased to share our knowledge and experience that we’ve gathered over the 11 years of tree inventorying here in Centre Wellington.

“Raresites: Land Conservation in the 21st Century”

Date: Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Time: 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Where: Elora Centre for the Arts, 75 Melville St, Elora
Cost: Free for members, $5 non-members

Speaker: TOM WOODCOCK

Rare Charitable Research Reserve is a 900+ acre urban land trust and environmental institute in Waterloo Region/Wellington (near Cambridge). The reserve contains a network of natural landscapes that are held in trust as a common possession, set aside for their natural and heritage value. Rare’s mission is to provide opportunities in ecological and cultural research, education, community engagement, and recreation.

Join us for Tom Woodcock’s presentation “raresites: Land Conservation in the 21st Century”.

We expect a lot of our land, yet many people rarely give it a second thought. Ecological services provide for all our wants and needs, but require space and respect that come with high costs in our modern economy. Tom will discuss the ecological benefits of land conservation, and the challenges of a charitable land trust in one of Canada’s most expensive and fastest growing areas.

About the speaker: Tom has been an environmental scientist for more than 20 years, studying effects of human activity on ecological processes in a variety of systems. As Planning Ecologist at the rare Charitable Research Reserve, he works to secure, restore, and steward lands for the benefit of nature.

Neighbourwoods thanks our 2018-19 Tree Talk Sponsor, the Elora-Salem Horticultural Society, for their support.

If you have been looking for an opportunity to contribute to our community, meet some really nice folks, learn some things then please consider volunteering for Neighbourwoods.  All of our programs rely on folks just like you.  Some of our projects ask for a couple of hours – like planting and stewards, and  others need a longer commitment over the summer.

In all cases, you’ll learn about trees and feel good!

We invite you to take a look at the 4 volunteer opportunities we have for  2019 and fill our form below to find out more. No obligation!

Click Here to Volunteer!

Neighbourwoods Winter Tree Talk: MCC: Reforesting for Hope and Change in Haiti

On January 21st, about 40 enthusiastic community members gathered to hear Fred Redekop give a fascinating overview of a long-running project by the Mennonite Central Committee to reforest the hardest-hit areas in Haiti, to provide local people with affordable food, cooking fuel, and building materials, as well as income from fruit and lumber sales. In addition, the reforestation project improves soil and reduces erosion from wind and water, reducing vulnerability to, and allowing quicker recovery from, natural disasters like hurricanes and droughts.

Fred’s talk included some background on some of the reasons that led to Haiti’s becoming so drastically deforested, including extreme weather but also political and economic pressures both internal and external to Haiti. This generated comments and questions among the listeners, and we were fortunate to have relevant insights shared by participants with first-hand experience in Haiti. A strong point of the presentation was that MCC works directly with local people and partners, to ensure the aid provided is appropriate to the people’s needs, and is sustainable by them over the long term. MCC has established local tree nurseries, and provides education, training, and support on sustainable farming practices. The trees are selected specifically for the climate and conditions, and are fast-growing. The project has been underway since 1983; in the past five years alone, over 2 million trees have been planted, of which approximately 400,000 are fruit trees.

The presentation gave us much food for thought, and provided a clear example of how forest conservation is critical to the well-being of people and environments.

Fred Redekop was a pastor in the Mennonite Church for 30 years.  At present he is the Church and Community Associate for Mennonite Central Committee; he is also a councillor for the Township of Woolwich. We were delighted that he was able to join us for this special evening.

Neighbourwoods thanks our 2018-19 Tree Talk Sponsor, the Elora-Salem Horticultural Society, for their support.