Martha from Urban Forestry
Download MP3We know our services and programs impact you, so let's talk about them. Together, we'll learn from the people behind the scenes and get to know our city a little better. From the city of Winnipeg, this is Our City, Our Podcast.
Natalie:This podcast is recorded in Treaty 1 territory, the home and traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Ininew, and Dakota peoples, and the national homeland of the Red River Metis. We acknowledge that our drinking water comes from Shoal Lake Forty First Nation in Treaty 3 territory.
Tamara:Hi, I'm Tamara.
Natalie:And I'm Natalie.
Tamara:Now Natalie, have you had the chance to take a walk outside with the trees and the little buds are coming?
Natalie:It smells good. Well, know we're coming out of that winter but today's interview gives us a little bit of appreciation for some of the cold snaps we've seen in our past and the beautiful green we're about to see.
Tamara:That's right we're speaking with Martha Barwinski she is our city forester.
Tamara:Martha thank you so much for joining us. I understand some of your neighbors might know you as the tree lady but around here I think I'm tempted to introduce you as somebody who probably has a pair of dress shoes and steel toed work boots under your desk. So what exactly is it that a City Forester does?
Martha:That's a good question. The city forester really I'm leading the management of the urban forest in the city of Winnipeg and leading a lot of people to manage the trees. So there's a lot of technical aspects to what I do, which is my background in in arboriculture. And so, you know, how we manage the trees, how we manage a population of trees, not just an individual one, but also how do I translate the direction that we are given by council and to our staff, and how do I lead them into taking care of our trees, protecting public safety, and making sure that we have an urban forest canopy for many years. So it's, it's very complex what we do.
Martha:Overall, I would say that I'm, you know, really trying my best to lead people and, and lead our staff so that they love what they do and, that they also end the day safely, and they go home to their families and friends.
Natalie:Now you've been in this role for seventeen years now, which I guess in the life of a tree isn't very long. But in the timeline of our urban canopy, it a lot has been going on. We'll get to that recent history in a moment, but I want to start with maybe talking and understanding a little more about what's unique about Winnipeg's urban forest. So we are here today, we're at City Hall. But if we step back two hundred years, and we we looked around us, what kind of landscape would we see?
Martha:Oh, the landscape would be very different from what we see today. During, you know, way back in time, well before we were around, you know, our landscape was really just prairie. We are in a a prairie grassland ecoregion, and it wasn't until really European settlers started coming over and settling in the region that we started seeing more trees being planted, particularly in the late eighteen hundreds, early '19 hundreds as the city started developing. People started bringing trees up from riverbank areas or from other small woodland areas and planting them in around the city. And so, you know, when you look at the city right now and the the thick green canopy that we have everywhere, it it wasn't like that, you know, even a couple of hundred years ago.
Tamara:One of the major challenges of your career has been the choice of trees that were planted back at that time and how they were all the same. Why is that a problem now?
Martha:We were using trees that were in our natural landscape back then, and that's also what was available to us at the time. And also at the time, there wasn't a great understanding of and there wasn't even the presence of invasive introduced pests that we see now. That wasn't as much of a consideration, but a lot of it was because of just those other species weren't available at the time. Now, the nursery industry and the urban forestry industry, we've introduced so many other species and cultivars, and there's been so much tree breeding that has happened over time, particularly across the Prairies, which is really unique. And and with the introduction of invasive pests that are species specific, such as Dutch elm disease to American elm, and the impacts that it has, especially since we have that monoculture of a small number of species, it's really important just for the health of the urban forest and just to make sure that we have a tree canopy into the future.
Martha:And as trade changes and climate change continues to happen, we're going to see more and more invasive pests introduced into our region, which means that we have to diversify our tree species so that we don't have these significant losses of any one type.
Natalie:And then, you know, listeners can probably relate to this in a number of different ways from what they're seeing in their own neighborhoods. Maybe I'll start. I live in the West End, and I'm thinking about a street like Spruce Street, which has seen nearly all of its boulevard trees taken down in recent years. Mhmm.
Natalie:Can you can you reflect a little on the the impact of of those losses?
Martha:Yeah. And that that speaks exactly to what I was saying about Dutch elm disease being a specie species specific pest. And, you know, on spruce tree Spruce Street, you know, there is monoculture of elms. And so the impact is really devastating where you have complete blocks of canopy removed in a very short period of time. And for the residents there, like, it's just all of a sudden, your street is just denuded of trees.
Martha:And so, you know, it's it's not only just the feeling of that loss, but there really are measurable losses as well. So you're you're losing your air conditioning. You're losing your shade. You're losing habitat as well. So, you know, there's it's a dramatic change to that immediate region.
Martha:That's another reason why we're diversifying our our tree canopy so that we don't see those large significant losses in such a short period of time.
Natalie:And there's the diversity in species, but there's also the diversity in in age. Yes. Explain that
Martha:as well. So so that street as well, you know, those trees were planted in the early nineteen hundreds, and they were all planted at that time. And and so we are we are challenged with that as well where we have particularly in our mature communities, you know, if we have a large number of those mature trees go down in a short period of time, we're now planting all of those trees back at the same time as well. It's almost like we have a monoculture of age as well. And so that's why with managing Dutch elm disease where we don't have those large blocks or chunks of trees removed that, you know, if it's interspersed, then we can kind of we can change up the age structure, the the diversity of age in that canopy as well.
Tamara:So if we look at the newer neighborhoods, how is the tree species there looking now? And then how will it look in twenty, forty, sixty years? Mhmm. We wanna try to avoid that monoculture.
Martha:When we look at the the new developments, you know, we're we're kind of falling into the same same thing where we're planting all of those trees all at once, but we have to. So that is something that we'll just be managing over time. And part of urban forest management is also managing the life cycle of trees and with having a really good maintenance program, we can actually plan for that as well. But with managing, planting more a broader range of tree species and cultivars in a neighborhood, we will also still get more diverse age of trees, if you will, just because those different species and cultivars will also have different life cycles. So it's not just, you know, the genetics of the type of tree and potential for pest disturbance, but it's also, you know, they do have different life cycles.
Martha:We will still have with that, we'll still have kind of a diversity of age as well. And really for people in general, really what it changes is with the way it looks, and that's the impact that it has with people in general. Like, we we are so accustomed to this beautiful, arching cathedral canopy of of American elms over our over our boulevards. But now it's just it's going to look different, but it's going to be more interesting. So we just have to look at it with a different lens.
Natalie:And speaking of different lens, you know, when it comes to Dutch elm, there's actually another really unique to Winnipeg story in this. You know, it was my mom, she lives in Southern Ontario, she was the first one to point this out to me. She really when she came here, she said, look at all the elm trees. So many trees have been lost like we're talking about. But maybe we don't often celebrate that Winnipeg has also the largest remaining urban population of Elm in North America.
Natalie:Can you tell us a little more about that story and how we've accomplished that?
Martha:Yes. Winnipeg has the most successful management program for Dutch Almond disease in all of North America. And we kind of just learned from others' mistakes, but we also had a lot more to lose. So because of where we are on the prairies and the limited number of species that can grow here well, you know, American elm is absolutely treasured. It is the best urban tree, but, you know, we just don't have a lot of trees to choose from as opposed to Ontario, Quebec, BC, the Maritimes.
Martha:So it's the elm and even any of the tree species that do well here that are accustomed to our climate are that much more valuable. So Dutch elm disease was found in Winnipeg in 1975. We started planning for that. There was a group of people that got together from elected officials to public administrators to community groups to scientists that got together and recognized the the significance of Dutch elm disease and the impact it would have on our city. And so and even in our province.
Martha:So even before Dutch elm disease was found here, there was already a plan to start managing and preparing for it. For the city of Winnipeg, what we started doing is we actually started doing an elm count even before the disease was found here. That's really with anything that you manage, you have to know what you have in order to manage it, and so that was the first thing. Provincially, we are also the only province in Canada that has a Dutch Elm Disease Act, So there's provincial legislation to manage the disease and also requiring or encouraging municipalities and communities to manage the disease as well. So it's a real partnership that we've had with the province of Manitoba, unlike any other partnership across Canada in urban forestry.
Martha:So that's really unique to us, and and that's one of the reasons why it's been so successful. And there's also just been that commitment, that long term commitment provincially and within the city, of the value of our urban elm canopy. And, and, really, community advocates have had a huge role to play in that. Coalition to save the elms was struck. They came together in the early nineteen eighties, and that was, as a result of, the potential for the provincial government to reduce, funding to the Dutch elm disease program province wide.
Martha:And so there were a lot of community groups that got together and and specific people that got together and and really advocated to keep that funding in place. And so, you know, it's it's we've just been very fortunate for people to recognize that value.
Tamara:Elm trees aren't the only trees under threat though. Tell us because I understand you remember very vividly a day eight years ago when emerald ash borer was discovered here in Winnipeg.
Martha:Mhmm. It was a feeling of dread. We had we had been we started really preparing for emerald ash borer in about 02/2007 because we you know, it was it was starting to move through the Northeastern States and and and it was moving into and over time, it was moving into Eastern Canada as well. And it was just devastating impact. It was just attacking all the ash very quickly.
Martha:It was also an extreme public safety risk because once the emerald ash borer starts attacking an ash tree and it takes over that tree, the tree actually will just collapse. So it was a public safety risk. It's also a risk to the arborists that are trying to remove that tree. But also just because we knew that we have such a significant ash population in the city that, oh, no. Now we've got this other invasive pest that can wipe out a good part of our of our urban forest.
Martha:So we started preparing for that in 02/2007, and and part of that preparation was really learning education and communication, but also working with industry, particularly with the nursery industry to start increasing the diversity of their crops, their trees that they're growing so that we had more to choose from. Because it takes, you know, eight to twelve years, eight to ten years to develop a nursery tree that we can plant on the boulevard. So we knew that we had to get ahead of it, and by the time, you know, potentially EAB was here that we started increasing the diversity of our species of our trees population. But, yeah. So that day, you know, we had a a service request that came in, and this was in fall of twenty seventeen.
Martha:So a service request came in that, you know, this tree was showing symptoms. Like, it looked really weird. The woodpeckers were going crazy on it. The bark was very light. We call it blonding.
Martha:As the woodpeckers attack the tree, they're actually pecking off the outer parts of the bark to get to the larva inside the tree. So one of our technicians went out to inspect the tree and they discovered emerald ash borer in the tree. And so it was just alarm bells going off, full response mode, emergency response mode, calling in the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, calling in our colleagues from the province. And everybody just came into Winnipeg, and we had to conduct surveys to it was a delimiting survey to find out how far the infection had had occurred. So it's nothing that I've experienced before, we've ever experienced before that kind of response.
Natalie:But, again, Winnipeg is seen as an anomaly here in the way that that pest has taken hold
Martha:or or not taken hold. Exactly. Yeah. Even to this day, we we really don't know what's happening, which is you know, it's a good news story in a way, but we can't become complacent either because we know just with our biology backgrounds that, you know, it's just a matter of time for the pest to adapt to our climate. What's happening is that since we found EAB, we've only removed about 20 ash trees actually infested with the beetle, with the pest.
Martha:We've continued to monitor. We're working with Canadian Food Inspection Agency with different monitoring tools as well. We know the beetle is here because it is showing up on traps now and especially some new traps that we're researching. We're working with CFIA on researching these new traps. We it's we we knew and we've always known it's one of these we call it an insidious pest because it's just very difficult to detect.
Martha:The symptoms are very general when a tree is infected with EAB. We've had lots of calls. We've gone out to do lots of inspections on ash trees that look like EAB, but it's not. And we've been working with Canadian Forest Service as well. They're assessing tree samples that we send to them.
Martha:They're finding that and we all are finding that it's probably our winters that are reducing the the the population. The population just isn't able to build as quickly as it has in other regions because of our cold temperatures. Now, over time, we've also seen that our winters are shorter and we're not getting those extreme temperatures, at least not for lengthy periods of time. And we're going to see that continue. So it's just a matter of time for that population to build, and we'll have to be prepared for that.
Martha:What we've also been doing is we've been culling our ash population on boulevards and in parks, where we've been proactively removing dead, dying ash trees or ash trees that are in poor conditions so that we don't have such a large number of trees to remove in a very short period of time when it does build. And we've also been injecting ash trees on boulevards and in parks that are in good condition to try to preserve those trees. Also in a way, like if those trees are infected with emerald ash borer, that the pest icide is very effective at reducing the population or preventing the population from building. When you look at the number of ash trees we have in the city, we have about 350,000 ash trees. When we did an inventory several years ago.
Martha:Only a third of those are actually on public property on our boulevards and in our parks. The majority similar with our American elm population majority of those trees are on private property. But we are really only able to manage right now what's in our boulevards and parks. But we think with our monitoring and our culling and the injections and the combination with our cold winters that perhaps we've managed to prevent the population from really building quickly. But we honestly really don't know for sure because, like you said, we are an anomaly.
Tamara:And speaking of management tools for trees, tree banding. When you see that on the street, what what's the purpose of it?
Martha:It's it's really just to control cankerworms. It it's it doesn't prevent Dutch elm disease. It's very specific to cankerworms because there's a spring and fall cankerworm, two different types. The female moth is wingless, so she actually has to climb up the tree to lay her eggs in the canopy. When she climbs up, she gets caught in the tangle foot.
Martha:And so we see a reduction in egg masses population in cankerworm. It's most effective when all of the trees in that immediate vicinity are treated with the tree banding, which we often don't see and it's very difficult to do that. So, you know, it's and there's a lot of other what we call defoliating insects, moths and caterpillars that aren't impacted with they aren't caught by the tree banding treatment. So elm span worm we see is on the rise and it's very it really fluctuates from year to year and moves around the city. So one neighborhood, it'll be really bad.
Martha:Next year, it won't be so or two years or so afterwards, it won't be so bad. So it's you know it's it's one method to manage a pest but it's very targeted and very specific and but it's also a way you know, to you know, Coalition to Save the Elms really started a tree banding program in earnest with the city of Winnipeg, and it was directly through that nonprofit organization that it became a a big thing. And so in a way, it it also became an opportunity to bring communities together and increase awareness of the health of our urban forest and the value of the trees in the community. So it's very specific for a specific pest, but at the same time, it brings communities together to, you know, who value the trees in their neighborhood, which is a good thing. So it's yeah.
Martha:But we haven't actively been driving that program.
Natalie:You know, as we talk about, you know, the pain of losing trees, I think this is a good spot to remind us what trees really do for Winnipeggers. Yeah.
Martha:So it's you know, there are there's multiple, multiple benefits of trees. There's the benefit of a single tree and there's the benefit of a whole population of trees. So through the development of our urban forest strategy, the city's urban forest strategy, which council adopted in December of twenty three. We conducted a whole state of the urban forest report, and we did a full analysis of the value of our urban canopy. And and so we have a lot of numbers associated with the values.
Martha:For example, you know, how much carbon is sequestered and stored, how much energy savings we we see from the urban forest. I think it's $5,800,000 per year that we see in energy savings with just our whole urban forest, which is really significant. We also determined a compensatory value, which means what would it cost if we were to replace those trees as they are right now. And so the compensatory value of the urban forest canopy right now is about $3,300,000,000 That's what it would cost. We have all of those numbers.
Martha:We also have pollution removal, air cleaning, storm water management, those kinds of things. Those are all those tangible environmental ecosystem services, what we call them. There's also even just the benefits to our health and well-being. This is something we're seeing a lot more of in the research that even doctors now are prescribing walks in the woods for people to have that connection or that interaction with trees for mental health, physical well-being as well, but also for social well-being. Trees tend to bring people together as well.
Martha:So, you know, even, you know, you see in our parks in on a hot summer day, people are picnicking. Where are they picnicking? Under a grove of trees, under the shade of trees. So, you know, it does bring people together. And even related to health, you know, in the development of our urban forest strategy, was really interesting.
Martha:There was a group of administrators from the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority that wanted to have input on the benefits of the urban forest in our strategy. And so they were bringing all kinds of research to us showing how even hospital stays were reduced if patients had a tree outside their window, if they could actually see a tree outside their window, that their hospital stay and they had faster recovery. So we're seeing more and more of that research. We're also seeing at University of British Columbia, there's an urban forestry undergraduate program and master's program now. And researchers there are starting to study the effects of the shading and cooling from trees on people's different thermal experiences in the summertime, which we just learned about that at the Urban Forest Conference that we hosted in Winnipeg this past fall.
Martha:So even just demonstrating and providing evidence about the value of shade from trees and, I guess, mitigating people's different thermal experiences when they're standing at a bus stop, for example. So all of those things, you know, we see benefits. We also see, you know, ecological benefits just providing habitat in our neighborhoods and also food systems contributing to food systems. So it's it really is wide ranging. And stormwater management is something as the city continues to develop and even develops more internally that we're seeing and we're trying to communicate more and more the benefits of our trees and stormwater management and reduction on the stress on our stormwater systems as well.
Natalie:Makes you want to hug a tree. Yeah.
Tamara:And I will admit I love trees but I can't tell different species apart. They all look I mean aside you know spruce trees and the obvious ones but if somebody wants to know what kind of tree is on their boulevard I understand we have a neat feature on our website where you can actually find out the tree exactly in front of your house.
Martha:Mhmm. Yeah. So we the city does have an open data portal and and our tree inventory. So it's an inventory of all the trees on boulevards and in parks that we have that tree inventory on the on the open data portal. So we have one that where you can download spreadsheets and you know a spreadsheet of data, but the really cool part of that open data is that we
Natalie:have a
Martha:map associated with our tree inventory. So if you go to the tree inventory map on that portal, you can search for where you are or, you know, you wanna find out what that tree is. You've kind of determined where that tree is associated with the street and on the map, and you click on it, and it'll tell you what the tree is. And it'll tell you the size of the trunk of that tree. And that's a measurement.
Martha:It's a technical measurement that we use, but that size is only as good as the date that that data was collected. But at least you have you have the, the name of that tree.
Natalie:And and like a good gardener, how do you check-in and keep tabs on on all of those trees?
Martha:It's all about having a good maintenance cycle. And so for our Dutch elm disease management program, we actually conduct an annual surveillance for all American elms on all properties across the city to manage the disease. And so our surveillance staff are looking at every American elm and looking for symptoms for Dutch elm disease. They see it, they test it, they sample it, they test it, and it's a visual test and market for disease if that's the case. For everything else that's non Dutch elm disease related, we really are managing boulevard and park trees, street and park trees.
Martha:And so that's where our pruning cycle really is important. With the urban forest strategy being adopted by council and the budget requirements to meet the targets in the urban forest strategy, we've been very fortunate that council has actually funded those targets. So we are improving our pruning cycle. Many years ago, we were at over forty years for a pruning cycle. What that means, it means that the pruning cycle measures how frequently we are visiting a tree really to inspect it and prune it.
Martha:And this is all on average because we'll be visiting and pruning a small tree more frequently than we would a mature tree. On average, our target is to have a twelve year pruning cycle for park trees and a seven year pruning cycle for street trees. That means every seven years, a street tree is going to be visited, inspected and pruned. So that really is the best way to manage our canopy and maintain the health of the canopy and also to protect public safety. Part of those inspections and a big part of that maintenance is really to address or assess the tree for any kind of hazards or structural risks that might be a risk to public safety.
Tamara:Martha, we've talked about inspecting and pruning. How are we when it comes to replanting?
Martha:When the trees when we remove a tree from the boulevard or from a park, that information is recorded, and updated into our tree inventory database. And so, every year, we'll do a download of that, and we'll search for tree removals and then that generates our reforestation list. And so that's where we identify locations where we need to replant. At the same time, when we collected the data that became our tree inventory, our summer students at the time also identified plantable sites. So they identified where, Oh, there's this space on the boulevard, that's a good spot for a tree.
Martha:So with that information of those vacant, what we call vacant sites really, and our reforestation lists, our technicians will start going out around this time of year or once the snow really melts to inspect all of those sites for suitability. And so they'll inspect, is it suitable for a tree at this time? And what happens is a lot of those sites that had trees in the past, really mature trees, especially in the mature neighborhoods, those sites aren't necessarily suitable anymore. For example, the tree that was growing there before, this big mature American Elm was growing right beside a stop sign. That doesn't meet our standards anymore.
Martha:These are industry standards that are developed also with transportation engineering and transit as well. We have certain measurements for how far a tree should be from an intersection or from a stop sign or so that it won't be obstructing a traffic signal, those kinds of things. So on average over time, we've found that only about 60% of the sites on that reforestation list are actually now suitable for planting a tree. That's why it's important that we have the inventory of these vacant sites so that we still want to our target is to replace trees on a one to one basis. So for every tree removed, we're planting another tree.
Martha:We've actually reached that goal already. This is our second year, I believe, where we've reached that goal, and that's again through the additional funding that we've received from council from the Urban Forest Strategy. So it's really looking at these inspecting for these suitable sites, but then the technician also has to identify what tree is going to be best for that site. So we follow the principle of right tree, right place, And so that that tree will also be the most suitable for that location and we won't have problems or issues with that tree at that location. It can actually, you know, live out its entire life cycle, and we get all the benefits from it over that time.
Natalie:Is there a standard on how much tree cover is good for a city?
Martha:No. And that's something that we looked at when we were developing the urban forest strategy because, you know, a lot of people will use canopy cover targets that Toronto has or Ottawa or Vancouver. But, you know, we Winnipeg is in a very different region. There are cities all across Canada. They're in different eco regions.
Martha:You know, Ontario and Quebec, you know, forest eco regions. So we are in a prairie eco region. So our canopy cover is going to be different because there are other habitat and other, platforms, I guess, or or landscapes that are also important in contributing to that ecosystem services in Winnipeg. So it's, you know, every city has their own. There is no set standard.
Natalie:Is the overall goal to increase the number of trees we have in the city?
Martha:Yes. It is. Through our urban forest strategy, we have canopy cover targets now. When we first did the measurements, first ever that we did a measurement of our urban forest canopy with this strategy in 2018, we determined the city had a 17% canopy cover. And so our target to 02/1965 is to have a 24% canopy cover.
Martha:So it's a significant increase in the number of trees that we have to plant. But it's not just all us. The majority of those trees actually are going to be will have to be planted through development, through other institutions, through private property owners. Actually, the greatest opportunities for increasing the canopy cover is on private properties. And that's the biggest challenge that we have because that's also where we have you know, that's we don't have jurisdiction on on those properties.
Martha:So so it comes down to education and communication and and really incentivizing or encouraging people to plant trees on their private properties. When I drive through neighborhoods and I see these large front lawns and we can't plant a tree on the boulevard because the turf boulevard is too narrow, but there's so many opportunities for people to plant trees on their front yard even if it's one shade tree. And they're also going to experience the benefits of having that tree on their property but it's also benefiting the entire community. So anything that happens to trees on one property or on a group of properties impacts the entire community.
Natalie:Can you explain that in what way?
Martha:Well, everybody is benefiting from the ecosystem services that tree is providing. So, know, it's trees and like those services don't see they don't recognize property lines like we do, right? It's we these are, you know, property lines that we've created. But, you know, the habitat that that tree creates or provides is it benefits everybody in that community. And even just the the benefits for our own well-being and community connections and interaction with nature, it it affects everybody.
Natalie:I'm thinking of the thrill our family had a few years ago when there were owls on our Yes. Bird's tree. Absolutely. The whole family of them. Was amazing.
Natalie:Yep.
Tamara:On our end, we had the opposite experience where we had to say goodbye to a large cottonwood that had been planted on our property way before we moved in. And in that time, it just got too big and too fast. And an arborist assessed it and said it's it's really quickly becoming unsafe. On that topic, what should homeowners be doing and and looking for when it comes to the trees on their property?
Martha:It all starts with planting the right tree in the right place. So if if anybody is looking to do that or they want to have trees in their yard, you know, I even mentioned so many opportunities for front yards to for people to plant trees. It's really just doing a check-in with your yard, looking at soil quality, looking at the amount of space. Space is very important, and it will dictate what kind of tree you plant. So for a large shade tree, you need a lot of space.
Martha:It's not just the above ground space, but it's the below ground space so that root system actually is able to extend as the tree matures without any issues. So it starts with that moisture content in the soil, exposure, all those kinds of things, adjacent buildings. But, you know, if you have existing trees on your property, it's really just going out for a walk in your yard and looking at any issues. For you know, in the summertime, of course, leaves that are healthy, green, if there's anything out of the ordinary, then there could be an could be a problem. There's broken branches or any kind of holes in a tree, in a stem, particularly in the main stem.
Martha:And, you know, I really encourage people to just call up an arborist to come out and do an assessment of their trees if especially mature trees, if they have concerns. You look for an arborist that has their certification with the International Society of Arboriculture that is a knowledgeable, trained, skilled arborist that can provide you with an assessment. And and, you know, it it costs money. So it's you know, trees are are valuable. They provide a lot of benefits to us, and it just costs a little bit of money to maintain them properly.
Natalie:And finally, Martha, do you wanna leave us with an additional resource when it comes to adding new trees? What you could look at to make sure you make the right choice?
Martha:Yes. Actually, Trees Winnipeg has an excellent video on tree planting. Really good information on their website as well for right tree, right place. If you just, you know, Google or on your search engine, you know, Trees Winnipeg, type that in. There's also through the International Society of Arboriculture, they have a website called Trees Are Good that they also have great information on.
Martha:Right tree, right place. But the Trees Winnipeg website, it's local. And also, you know, check-in with your local garden centers and and look at the trees that they are that they are selling. You know, we really encourage diversity, but we're also encouraging trees that have been grown on the prairies. You know, our our program, you know, we're we're purchasing trees as much as possible from local nurseries or prairie nurseries because those are gonna be the most well suited to our region as well.
Natalie:Great and we'll add some of those resources to the show notes.
Tamara:Martha thank you so much for joining us today I think we all learned a lot I think we're gonna look a little closer at the trees next time we go for a walk and and really appreciate them and not take them for granted maybe as much as sometimes we do because we're just so busy. So thank you very much for that. But we do have one more question which is something that we ask all of our guests. And what is something that you wish everybody knew about Winnipeg? Doesn't have to be work related but you get to see a lot of Winnipeg in your job so what's something you want to Oh
Martha:wow. Well you know there's so many things and one of the things that you know, we talk about our American elm canopy and it being the largest in any urban population in North America, but people don't you know, I'm assuming or I you know, one thing people don't probably know is that we also have the largest population of baroque in any city in Western Canada as well, native population of baroque. And, you know, when you look at our natural woodland areas, you know, it's the oak aspen forest, and and oak is really a significant tree. It's just so complex in the habitat that it provides and the complex interactions it has with other organisms, and it's it's fascinating. But I I think, you know, just the importance.
Martha:I you know, people know how how tight a community Winnipeg is, but I think when people come in here, they don't recognize how, like, the community that we have in Winnipeg and and how we all come together, especially in times of crisis. And and we certainly saw that with with the what we called Treemageddon in October of twenty nineteen. Just how how everybody came together and how important the trees were to our city at that time. And yeah. So it's those kinds of things that you know, I'm I'm a Winnipegger, born and bred, love it here, and raising my family here.
Martha:So I think those two things.
Natalie:Coming up on our next episode of our City Art podcast, summer is here. That means festivals and music and different sporting events.
Tamara:It seems like there's always something to bring you downtown during the next couple of weeks and months. Next month, we're talking to Inspector Helen Peters about the downtown safety strategy. Hope you join us.
Natalie:And before we go, we'd love to hear from our listeners. What programs and services impact you most? Email us at city -podcast@winnipeg. Ca with suggestions for future episodes. Thanks for listening.
