History
Urban Forestry
History
Canada contains 10% of the world's forests which until recently, was the basis of the Canadian economy. This explains why "industrial forestry" has continued to dominate the programs that define "forestry" within Canada. Historical reviews frequently describe the progress in Canadian forestry - going from the "Prehistoric" to the "Liquidation" to the "Conservation" to the "Sustained Yield Eras" .
| |
Figure 1. Most Canadians (78%) live in urban areas.
|
It is amidst this history that the development of Canada's cities took place. From a population of 5 million in 1901 in which 80% of the population lived on farms and in rural areas, Canada has now attained a population of over 30 million of which 78% live in cities, towns and populated areas. This change has been accompanied by urban infrastructure changes - including more streets, sewers, underground services (gas, electricity and water) and of course, buildings.
Municipal tree planting began along roadsides. At the turn of the 20th Century, many municipalities began to see the need to protect and replant trees. The creation of municipal parks departments and agencies to manage vast tracts of public, urban land was a response to these phenomena. Monoculture type plantings were common. Highway and road construction rarely considered the integration of trees in site designs. New development in agricultural and natural areas (including woodlots) surrounding cities in the post-World War II era quickly mirrored the "Liquidation Phase" of industrial forestry - forests were seen as an impediment to growth and quickly eliminated to accommodate suburban expansion.
The arrival of Dutch elm disease in the early 1960's virtually wiped out the American elm (Ulmus americana L.) the street tree of choice in Canada's cities. From this an urban forestry movement was born including the creation of a number of organizations - from community groups such as SOS Elms in Saskatchewan to the creation of an Urban Forestry Program of the federally sponsored Forest Management Institute in 1973 (Jorgensen, 1993). It was as Chief of that program that Eric Jorgensen, considered by many to be the grandfather of urban forestry invented its first working definition:
| Urban forestry is a specialized branch of forestry and has as its objective the cultivation and management of trees for their present and potential contribution to the physiological, sociological. and economic well being of urban society. These contributions include the over-all ameliorating effect of trees on their environment, as well as their recreational and general amenity value (Jorgensen, 1993) |
Over the years, many other definitions have been proposed, most recognizing the difficulty in limiting the urban forest to the "city" limits. In addition, the woodlands in the vicinity of Canada's cities and towns face significant pressures from urbanization. Forests in these "peri-urban" environments tend to be highly fragmented and the rate at which they are permanently lost from the landscape is great. In this sense, these woodlands are also part of our urban forests.
|
