Public trees

Council adds public consultation to tree policy process

Across three yards on the east end of Bloomfield’s Main Street lie the hulking remains of three massive maples, their metre-wide trunks sliced in sections on the front yards where they once stood tall.

The visual is a stark reminder that the County’s policy on protecting and replacing its mature canopy of trees is in limbo.

In late 2015, council gave direction to the County’s planning committee to review and replace what was seen as an ineffective tree policy. Mature trees were being removed without consultation with an arborist. A bylaw to replace trees was not being enforced.

Then the trees lining Picton’s Main Street were removed when their roots were irreparably damaged by work on and under the street last summer. They were replaced by saplings, which the construction company was paying to maintain for a short period of time.

That move concerned groups like the Prince Edward County Field Naturalists, Horticultural Society and Master Gardeners of Prince Edward. How did the County decide whether the trees should have been removed, and what species replaced them?

The groups approached Picton councillor Lenny Epstein with their questions. The new tree policy was in the queue, but it would be over a year before it was done. They needed to know who would consult with staff as they developed the policy.

Last Thursday, Susan Banks and Gerry Jenkinson brought their concerns to a committee of council on behalf of those groups. It was timely. Epstein had put a motion on the agenda to include public consultation in the process of developing the tree policy.

Banks told council the policy should improve the canopy in developed corridors, protect and encourage healthy mature trees.

She reminded them of the value of those trees, both financially and ecologically, as forests remain cooler and wetter than bare land.

Jenkinson stressed the need to hire someone to manage the County’s trees.

“Our preference is to maintain mature trees for as long as possible,” Banks told council. “Because that, as science has shown, will provide us with all the benefits that trees do provide us. We need to be hesitant about cutting down large trees, and think twice. Think about the value that they have to the community.”

Epstein said the staff structure is limited in its ability to see the bigger picture. Incorporating the public into policy development and implementation would better address varying needs and concerns. He asked if the women, and the groups they represent, were interested in participating in shaping that policy by joining an ad-hoc committee. They were.

“What I’m trying to do… is to create a motion that will save us potential situations like we saw with the special events bylaw and the noise bylaw, where we come back with a policy that hasn’t been consulted with the community, and then we end up having to go back and consult with the community anyway,” Epstein told council. “We only have two years left with this term, and I would like to see things move forward, so I’m hopeful that Commissioner McAuley will be willing to undertake this ad-hoc policy development group that includes the public, so that when the policy comes back to council, as we’ve requested, that we’ve already done that consultation work at that time.”

Both councillors and public works commissioner Robert McAuley welcomed the idea.

McAuley said that while he had been consulting with both Loyalist College and the conservation authority as experts on tree management policies, there was definitely room for public input.

“We’re building our information base. It was never my intention that this would be done in a vacuum, or that this would be brought to council as a de facto conclusion,” McAuley told council. “This is something that is publicly oriented and requires a lot of public involvement in terms of crafting it. So with that premise, we could certainly structure the ad-hoc committee.”

He did caution that the policy wouldn’t be likely to appear before council before 2018. Because other priorities had been put to staff, his department had not allocated enough resources to finish the work in 2017. But despite that, McAuley recognized the need to change the policy.

“This arose because of the policy the County does have for tree replacements,” McAuley explained. “And the recognition that we had not been following it due to funding constraints… this is not something we roll out in one year, it will be an ongoing process to increase the green canopy of the municipality.”

Council voted unanimously to create a committee.