GRAVENHURST TREE ASSESSMENT WILL LOOK AT URBAN CANOPY HEALTH ALONG PUBLIC ROADS

GRAVENHURST — The importance, health and longevity of the local tree canopy — and as it also relates to climate change — will see a university-driven “urban tree assessment” team inventory underway neighbourhoods the next three months on public properties.

As part of Gravenhurst’s 2022 capital budget, a partnership with the University of Toronto (Institute of Forestry Management and Conservation) will see an assessment of trees located on public lands undertaken by two students.

The focus of the study will be on urban trees only, identified in municipal right-of-ways and road corridors.

Trees on private property or trees on other municipal lands are not in the scope for this phase of the undertaking, says a town release Monday.

They say the purpose of the assessment is to “provide municipal leaders and other stakeholders with valuable insights about our community’s urban tree canopy, tree health and other tree attributes to intelligently approach environmental sustainability and to contribute the development of a multi-year urban tree management program.”

The town is partnering with the University of Toronto’s Institute of Forestry Management and Conservation.

And will be done two students: Kevin Myers (University of Toronto, Masters of Forestry Conservation) and Ahmad Nazari (University of Guelph, Landscape Architecture).

All work will be overseen by the Town of Gravenhurst in partnership with the University of Toronto (Danijela Puric-Mladenovic, Professor, Institute of Forestry & Conservation at Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto).