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www.oakvillebeaver.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Friday, August 6, 2010 · 16 Town plotting its municipal tree ownership By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Any resident who sees people wrapping measuring tape around trees in their neighbourhood need not be concerned as it is probably just Town staff working on the Town Tree Inventory project. The project, which is now in its second year, is part of the Town's Urban Forest Strategic Management Plan, a long-term vision for the sustainable management of Oakville's trees. Approved by Town council in 2008, the project seeks to determine the location, species, diameter, health, age, structural condition and the canopy size and width of every municipal tree in Oakville. A special survey conducted in 2005, with the help of the United States Forestry Service, estimated there are a total of 1.9 million trees in Oakville, 817,000 of which are on municipal property. The survey, however, did not "It's one thing to know that you have tens of thousands of trees, but you have to geolocate those trees and plot them on a GIS (Geographic Information System) layer so you can manage that resource." John McNeil, Town of Oakville forester tell Town staff exactly where these trees are. The Town's Manager of Forestry and Cemetery Services, John McNeil, said inventorying these trees is important for the future management of this important natural resource. "You can't really manage a resource unless you know something about it and that's a basic principal of biological management. Fisheries Canada needs to measure the amount of salmon in a certain tributary for them to be able to manage it, in terms of species size and health," said McNeil. "We need to know the same about the Town's urban forest canopy. We need to know the percent composition by species. Which type of tree makes up the most dominant part of the canopy? What condition are these trees in? Where are the trees that need to be pruned? "Are there any structurally unsafe trees or trees at risk that we might want to use some techniques to try and preserve? We don't know these things unless you go out and essentially take a census of your population." McNeil went on to say that the inventory is also important because it will locate all the ash trees on public lands, something that is essential given the threat of the emerald ash borer and the need to manage the threat of that invasive pest. "It's one thing to know that you have tens of thousands of trees, but you have to geolocate those trees and plot them on a GIS (Geographic Information System) layer so you can man- age that resource," explained McNeil. Since the health of the tree is an important consideration adding to the inventory is done in the summer when Town staff can see the condition of a tree's foliage. The inventory is scheduled to be complete by the end of this summer. McNeil said council approved a budget of $167,000 for the inventory this year. "Once it's complete we hope to share the information not only with other departments, for example the planning department so they can protect these Town trees when reviewing applications, but also with the general public at some point where residents could have webbased access and be able to identify the trees in front of their homes, for example," said McNeil. "This would aid their awareness and appreciation for the urban forest in their neighbourhood."