By Cheryl Jahn

Tree Protection Bylaw “antiquated”

Jan 5, 2023 | 3:09 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Prince George exists in the middle of a sea of trees, but unlike other communities this size, this city’s tree protection bylaw is very much out of date. Going back to 1994.

“The reality is that most other cities across Canada have a similar size to Prince George, have much more comprehensive tree bylaws,” explains Dr. Sinead Earley with UNBC. “And, you know, some of them build tree retention into new developments. And so that sets parameters on what developers do with newly built infrastructure. And the intention is to try and try and keep some of those trees in place rather than a wholesale clear cut when they’re going about building homes, residential neighborhoods.”

And that was the gist of a project at UNBC, which produced a series of recommendations, including the recognition of Prince George as an urban heat island and revising areas that are under tree removal protection. Environmental Policy Student Naledi Mphafi outlines which of them are personally important.

‘The bylaw is kind of anthropocentric currently, and moving towards ecocentric language would be very useful. Additionally, the bylaw talks about how to cut trees rather than tree protection specifically. So changing or shifting our language would probably be the most useful.”

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Natural disasters such as massive flooding in the south, forest fires in the Interior and heat domes are examples of, some would argue, the consequence of climate change. Trees, says Dr. Sinead Early, can mitigate some of that.

“They purify the air, stormwater retention. So this interaction with the soil systems cooling, natural air conditioning and where, you know, a lot of discussion about urban heat islands these days, trees help us out in a really great way that, you know, we can really learn from and actually lessen the cost of built infrastructure if we integrate that with that sort of ecological perspective.”

How developers begin a project, typically by removing all the trees, is something that Council has discussed in the past. It’s not a new issue. The City is about to rewrite its Official Community Plan which sets out a blueprint of how the city will be developed in the future. And that includes updating things like Tree Protection Bylaw.

“I mean, listening to the Councillors and listening to the Mayor, they seemed very enthusiastic about what we were doing, what Dr. Annie Booth’s class was doing. So after stepping back and after the presentation was complete, I thought to myself, ‘Oh, this is something that the community feels very positive towards.’ And there’s like a really big need for change to happen in this community, which is great, to hear about.”

They say the prevailing attitude has been, because we live in a forest, what’s the loss of a few more trees?