The City of Selkirk is continuing work to ensure its urban canopy will be lush and healthy along Main Street and other areas throughout the city for years to come by planting about 260 trees on medians and boulevards this spring.
Like the planting that took place on Main last fall, the trees will be interspersed amongst existing trees but will be replacing those that have come or are coming to the end of their natural lives. Trees will also be planted on boulevards in other areas throughout the city where no trees currently exist.
The older trees on Main Street will be removed over the next decade, as needed. Having the new ones planted prior to removal will allow the newly established trees to fill the canopy space. Planting them now helps ensure they are more mature when the old ones are removed and they can replace the service of the old tree when it is removed.
Selkirk’s Street Tree Policy guides the development of our urban canopy
Justin Torcia, the city’s Urban Forestry & Naturalization Coordinator, says the plantings will take place from May through June, weather dependent.
“Following Selkirk’s Street Tree Policy to increase tree species diversity, there will be approximately 18 different species planted on the medians and boulevards,” Torcia said.
“This will ensure that no single area will be stripped of trees if an invasive pest or disease is introduced to our community, as we’ve seen with Dutch Elm Disease and Emerald Ash Borer.”
The benefits of trees in a community are many and they range from protecting infrastructure from heat and UV rays to helping absorb storm water runoff. Other benefits include sequestering carbon and pollutants to improve air quality, provide habitat for birds and small mammals like squirrels, food for pollinators, calm driving speeds and make the city’s streets look beautiful.
Managing out natural assets as critical infrastructure
The city began its first tree inventory in 2019, a project that aligns with Selkirk’s Community Strategic Plan, Asset Management Program and the award-winning Climate Change Adaptation Strategy.
Taking stock of everything the city owns began in 2015 and started with assets like streets, pipes, buildings and vehicles, eventually progressing to trees, which are natural assets.
Torcia led the team for the inventory, and collected information on city owned trees, including where the tree is located, its age, condition, diameter and height. The inventory is set to be updated starting this spring and will take approximately three months to complete.
The details on each tree are invaluable to making the right decisions to keep the city’s urban canopy healthy.
“The data collected during the tree inventory aids us in the management of our urban forest. Some of this data was used to identify priority tree planting locations,” Torcia said.
Proactively managing and sustaining the city’s street trees
The Street Tree Policy lists criteria that helps determine where trees should be planted. That criteria includes areas where the land drainage system is over capacity, meaning there’s overland flooding during periods of high precipitation, streets with less than eight trees per 100 metres, and whether the street is a main artery, collector or residential street. Other considerations are the overall condition of current trees on the street, tree diversity and streets with household incomes less than the average household income for Selkirk. Studies show lower income neighbourhoods typically have less of an urban canopy to help stay cool in the warmer months.
Torica says the Street Tree Policy aims to “proactively manage and sustain the city’s street trees, protect our infrastructure from heat and UV rays, relieve pressure from storm drainage systems, improve air quality, and help to reduce the net CO2 emissions of our community.”
Prioritized planting locations aside from Main Street include:
- Manitoba Avenue from Easton Drive to Sophia Street (north side boulevards)
- Jemima Street from Phyllis Avenue to Toronto Avenue (boulevards, both sides)
- Mercy Street from Greenwood Avenue to Superior Avenue (boulevards, both sides)
- Main Street from Greenwood Avenue and Heap Avenue
If any of the planting locations prove unsuitable for planting, for reasons like underground or overhead utilities or spacing requirements detailed in the Street Tree Policy, trees will be planted on alternate streets, selected via the policy’s guidelines.
This project is funded through the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program administered by the provincial government.
Selkirk Park and Campground getting trees too
A provincial and federal tree planting program allowed the city to plant 35 new trees in Selkirk Park and the Campground this spring.
The 2 Billion Trees Program is in response to the federal government’s commitment to nature-based climate solutions and tree loss due to invasive pests and diseases, like Dutch Elm Disease and Emerald Ash Borer. It began last year and supports municipalities that have been cooperatively managing DED through Community Forest Grant Agreements.
The planting started on May 15 and will wrap up in June and five different species will be planted.
Enhancing our park while providing countless benefits to visitors
The benefits these trees will provide in Selkirk Park and the Campground are: provide shade to campers which will help to reduce electricity consumption from running air conditioners, provide shade for the playground during the hottest part of the day, protect roadways from heat and UV rays, filter the air we breathe by sequestering carbon and other pollutants, capture storm water runoff, provide habitat for birds and small mammals, provide a food source for pollinators, and improve the aesthetics and natural feel of the park.
Both the tree inventory and a recent analysis of park and campground trees determined the area as a priority. Many poplar trees in the campground are approaching the end of their life and the city will be proactively replacing them.
