Habitat develops a planting strategy for the City of Montreal's 500,000 new trees!

MONTREAL | TRADITIONAL KANIEN'KEHÁ:KA NON-CEDESTED TERRITORY, Monday, November 28, 2022 - The David Suzuki Foundation, in collaboration with Habitat, is releasing a report Scaling Up Equitable Climate Change Adaptation: Scenario for Planting 500,000 New Trees in the City of Montreal, which aims to identify where to plant the 500,000 new trees promised by the City of Montreal to accelerate equitable climate adaptation. The first actions for the planting of more than half of these trees would be carried out in six designated boroughs as a priority.

"The study proposes a four-step approach that any city should take to plan tree planting according to the specific socioeconomic and ecological needs of neighborhoods and thus maximize the benefits of long-term interventions. Such an approach is essential to planting the right trees in the right places today, in order to cope with more challenging future conditions, and to do so in an equitable manner," says Catherine Hallmich, science project manager at the David Suzuki Foundation, which commissioned the study. 

This research examines which tree varieties and planting areas should be targeted to address three major issues: increasing our adaptation to climate hazards (e.g., heat waves, floods), increasing the resilience of the urban forest, and ensuring an equitable distribution of trees across the territory. Using eight socio-economic and ecological indicators, the analysis recommends planting nearly 275,000 trees as a priority in the boroughs of Rivière-des-Prairies-Pointe-aux-Trembles; Saint-Laurent; Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve; Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension; Ahuntsic-Cartierville; and Saint-Léonard. 

"Given this strong imbalance, the City should consider implementing an internal equity mechanism to ensure that planting strategies and budgets respond to the needs of each borough according to their level of socio-economic and climate vulnerability," said Sabaa Khan, Executive Director for Quebec and the Atlantic at the David Suzuki Foundation.

The study also shows that by rebalancing the current composition of the urban forest (one-third of which is maple) to more diverse species that are resilient to local climatic hazards, the urban forest would become more resilient to heat waves, drought and storms (high winds).

" The functional diversity of Montreal's urban forest is currently very low (3.7 out of 9), which means that it is at risk of dying out in the face of climatic and biotic threats. Our analysis shows that it could reach 8.2 out of 9 if the selection of species to be planted is strategically planned. In the face of an uncertain future climate, it is imperative to focus on resilience to sustain the essential services that the urban forest provides-air quality, stormwater management, carbon sequestration," said Fanny Maure, Habitat's Chief Scientist and co-author of the report. 

The City of Montreal has committed to planting 500,000 new trees in areas vulnerable to heat waves by 2030. According to our study, the participation of residents and the private sector will be essential to achieving this goal, as more than 60% of the area suitable for new trees is located on private property and more than one-third of the area in non-mineralized zones (e.g., grass) is located on residential land. Given this challenge, the City should redouble its efforts to encourage residents to plant trees on their property.

The study was conducted by the firm Habitat for the David Suzuki Foundation. The full report (which will be available here on Monday, November 28) is accompanied by a map showing the number of priority trees to be planted, by sector, throughout the City of Montreal.

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