Urban Forestry

Results of the 5th Canadian Urban Forest Conference, October 2002

Participants at the Canadian Urban Forest Conference identified the following as important initiatives to address some of the challenging issues facing Canada's urban forests. These include:

• Promoting the application of cost/benefit analyses for urban forests in Canada
• Examining taxation and incentive programs to promote good urban forestry practice by individual, municipalities, developers and builders.
• The need for a fully funded national body to serve as a catalyst for research, communications, education and advocacy and as a clearinghouse for information.
• The need to raise the level of awareness of urban forestry issues (benefits and challenges) to the public at large, other professions, and policy makers.
• Having good science available to support urban forestry decision-making.
• Articulating a consistent vision for urban forests across the country, identify achievable goals and monitor progress towards these goals with a standard set of criteria and indicators.
• Actively planning for sustainable urban forests
• Achieving parity with other infrastructure components of the urban fabric
• Providing leadership for community action
• Optimizing tree selection for the urban and peri-urban environment
• Developing linkages between groups involved in urban forestry across the Country