Presentation to Environmental Services Committee of Council
22 October 2002
Iola Price, OFAC Co-Chair

(Text for a Power Point Slide Presentation)

1.

Good Morning Mr. Chairman (Peter Hume) and Councillors.  My name is Iola Price.  Joanna Dean and I are the co-chairs of the 15- member Ottawa Forests Advisory Committee.  Joanna regrets that she cannot be here  -- she is lecturing at Carleton at this very moment.  To my left is Ronald Daigle, the previous Co-chair.  We thank you for the opportunity to present our committee’s workplan for the coming year and to seek your approval of it and our proposed budget. 

I too would like to acknowledge the collaboration between OFAC and EAC.  Both committees have an environmental focus – related and equal but with different perspectives. 

I am pleased to see that EAC and OFAC now report to you – I think that integration will be useful for all of us.

2.       

You have our first annual report, for the period October 2001 to August 2002. In this presentation, we will briefly review

·         The context for you and for our committee

·         The committee’s mandate

·         Our year 1 goals and workplan (recall that we presented our 2002 workplan to you in January 2002)

·         We will provide examples of OFAC’s work and contribution to our new city (taken from our first annual report)

and

·         We will outline our objectives, focusing on key activities and a proposed budget for the coming year.

As requested, we have been quite detailed in our planning, providing information regarding milestones and deliverables, time estimates and cost estimates for each activity as outlined in your instructions.  We have also costed each item and, in accordance with our understanding that we must operate with half of the ESC allocation of $1,7648, we propose a budget of $8,825.  However, our original breakdown for these activities was $11,150 and if you and Corporate Services are willing, we can provide the original figures for your consideration and approval.  

3. 

The CONTEXT in which we operate is a city in which smart growth is the objective.  But growth comes with costs, one of which is often the loss of the protective tree canopy, as we have seen in Ottawa.  We are all concerned about climate change.  By planting trees and maintaining the forest cover, we believe that Ottawa can meet CO₂ reduction targets and, at the same time, meet citizens’ concerns about the preservation of native biodiversity.

Some of the many benefits of trees are shown on the slide.

Because trees and forests provide benefits that relate to most – if not all – of the elements in the draft Official Plan  -- such as

·         water management,

·         tourism,

·         business and economic benefits,

·         health, etc.

a strategy for trees should be an important part of the new Plan.  The comments that the city has received in the 2020 process show that people value trees.

4.

OFAC’s mandate was set when the committee was struck in 2001 and it continues to guide our activities.

Our MANDATE is to provide advice to Council that will help you make decisions that will safeguard the environment through the use of trees and tree cover.  We

·         Provide input into tree- and forest-related policies and budgets

·         Provide a forum for citizens on trees and forest issues

·         Advocate for trees and forests in Ottawa

In short, we

·         Promote public awareness about the value of Ottawa’s trees and forests and their role in protecting and enhancing the quality of our lives

Next I will outline some of the highlights of our first 8 months as an Advisory Committee.

5.

·         We provided input via the Ottawa 2020 process.  We are encouraged to see that some of our ideas regarding the importance of trees and forests were incorporated into the June 2002 draft of the Official Plan.

·         We provided a comprehensive report to Council on the proposed development of the Quarry Forest

·         One of our members is an active participant on the team developing the Woodland Preservation Bylaw

·         Two of our members are actively involved in the management of Community Forests.  The annual Marlborough Forest cleanup has the active involvement of an OFAC member.

These and other activities are outlined in more detail in our Annual Report.

6.

Our long-term goals for 2003 remain unchanged from 2002.  They are to:

·         Establish a comprehensive Ottawa Forests Master Plan

·         Ensure that our tree and vegetative cover is appropriate – the right tree in the right place –   [because we want to contribute to the conservation of Ottawa’s native biodiversity].

·         Establish effective partnerships to enhance and sustain Ottawa’s forests and tree cover for the benefit of citizens.

The amalgamated Ottawa in now steward to hundreds of thousands of trees along

·         city streets and rural roads,

·         parks and playgrounds

·         conservation areas

·         as well as in the nine thousand eight hundred (9,800) hectares of rural woodlands in 5 Community Forests. 

The majority of undeveloped land in Ottawa is, however, in private hands.  Our experience this year indicates that developers are still unclear about the expectations of the city regarding the preservation and enhancement of tree cover and the social and economic benefits those trees bring.  Not so the citizens.  They have clearly expressed their interest in having the city woodlands preserved.

Our overarching goal is to ensure that there will be a comprehensive plan for Ottawa forests – an integral part of the Official Plan – and referenced in the city’s Environmental Plan.  The Forests Plan should guide the city’s activities and that of its citizens in a wide range of activities.  Properly conceived and executed, it should

·         guide development policies and practices to enhance overall tree cover and conserve trees and forests;

·         better Ottawa’s quality of life and environment;   and,

·         contribute to the economic well-being of the city.

Our budget proposal for the coming year is consistent with the amount you approved in January 2002.  However, if you feel that the value of our contribution warrants, we could identify those activities that would benefit from an additional allocation of about $1,500.

7.

You have, as a separate handout, our “Roadmap” to the Ottawa Forests Master Plan. In your binder, it is attached as Figure 1 to the Workplan.  This is a multi-year roadmap.

Of the 20 themes and activities shown in the Roadmap, 10 are being done at no cost to the city.  That is a considerable benefit to all of us as taxpayers.

Four “roads” comprising short- to medium-term activities will lead to the Master Plan:

·         Official Plan input

·         Inventories of city tree and forest resources

·         Management Prescriptions (or strategies)

·         Tools for implementation

I will focus on each of these in turn.  Like the path in this picture, the road may not always be straight and while we know where we want to go, we don’t see the end yet.

8.

OFAC will continue to provide expert input to the Official Plan in regard to the trees and forests of Ottawa.  The budget request is for $300.  The other activities related to the Official Plan include (in the longer term)

·         reviewing the implementation of the Official Plan and,

·         in the coming year and thereafter

·         providing comment on proposals for amendments to the Official Plan,

·         proposals for zoning changes,     and

·         the review of selected development proposals. 

The Implementation of the Official Plan’s land use policies may be considered of equal and perhaps of greater importance than the policies – for without the means to implement them, policies mean little.  Therefore, development of the master planning documents (including the Forests Master Plan) and consideration of other tools is crucial to appropriate evaluation of the Official Plan.  Other tools that should be evaluated in relation to the Official Plan to measure the effectiveness include:

·         Environmental assessment

·         Other plans and master plans (such as

·         the environment plan,

·         transportation,

·         heritage,    and

·         watershed plans)

·         Regulatory tools ( such as zoning, land acquisition, fiscal instruments)

Perpetual protection for identified natural areas is crucial, particularly when land use conflicts arise.  The city is presently not as effective as it could be in protecting significant areas such as the Quarry Forest and the Carp Hills.  Development pressures on these areas are well orchestrated and well funded and strong,  concise policy is needed if we are to slow, down much less stop the loss of irreplaceable natural systems within Ottawa’s city limits.

9.

Inventories are important.  It is hard to set a general policy framework without knowing what the city has and what the city needs in terms of resources, including forest resources.  Knowledge about existing tree and forest conditions and trends is fundamental to successful planning. 

We can’t shape the future and set policy for protection, enhancement or restoration unless we understand the present.

We plan 3 activities:

·         Provide policy and other advice to the city staff on the creation of inventories of street and country road tree (only old Ottawa, Rockcliffe Park, the RMOC Regional Roads and the NCC had inventories) and begin discussions on a review of the forest cover data for Ottawa.

·         Undertake ward pilot projects to involve citizens in the creation of inventories of the trees on their streets and possibly on private property.

·         Develop a private property Heritage Tree inventory with a certificate honouring those special trees and their owners.

OFAC will look for opportunities for the city to partner with others on landscape-level projects such as the ‘Bog-to-Bog” project. 

Connecting the city’s Mer Bleue Bog with the Alfred Bog by means of a forested corridor is the kind of forest management activity that has long-term benefits for water table retention – and is important for the rural and farming communities in the eastern part of the city.

10.

In the area of forestry management or Prescriptions we will develop a Best Practices List  – drawn from provincial, national and international sources.

OFAC will also assist in the development of management criteria to maintain, increase and restore tree and forest cover, including working with developers to define ‘best practices’ in subdivision design, tree planting plans etc.

Another activity will be to develop a master list of trees and shrubs native to the Ottawa Valley.  That list would be a useful tool for city staff who review development and associated landscape proposals, for planning city tree plantings and as a guide for private citizens on trees and shrubs they could plant on their land.

Our objective is to work, over the next several years, with nursery owners, to encourage them to increase the supply of native species for city plantings and to encourage them and landscapers to promote native species for private plantings.  In this activity we will work closely with

·         city staff

·         local botanists,

·         landscape architects,

·         organisations such as the Fletcher Wildlife Garden and the Ottawa Field-naturalists Club.

At the request of city staff, OFAC will sit on the Management Committee for the Urban Woodlands Assessment to identify / classify Ottawa’s woodlands.  This initiative of city staff is an extension of the old city’s NOSS program (Natural and Open Spaces Study).

11.

OFAC will seek to help the City make the vision of sustainably managed urban and rural forests for 2020 a reality through Tools for Implementation. 

These Tools include the examples shown here as well as a range of others shown on the Roadmap.  They include:

·         Holding Special Events to develop partnerships

·         Developing, in conjunction with staff, Tree Trimming Guidelines for Bell and Hydro

·         Conducting a feasibility study for burying wires

·         Partnerships on existing projects such as the review of the Petrie Island Management Plan

·         Public consultation processes

The Tools for Implementation is where we propose to spend the largest proportion of our funds – $7125 – about half of which will be used for a public consultation 0forum. 

However, please note that of the 10 activities under this objective in the Workplan, 5 will be done at no cost to the city.

This presentation describes the proposed plans for OFAC in the coming year.  To summarize, we are operating in a new and exciting city that is planning for growth and we hope to help shape that growth in a way that maximizes the preservation and enhancement of Ottawa’s tree cover.  We had an exciting first 8 months and we are looking forward to the next 12. 

We have outlined what we hope to achieve with our requested allocation of $8,825, knowing that this in only the beginning of our journey in the creation of an Ottawa Forests Master Plan.

We will be happy to provide further information – now or at a later date.