Surrey prunes approximately 16,000 street trees each year.
Customer service is an important value to the city of Surrey.
In this image, in order to minimize disruption to commuters
in a very congested parking location, Surrey's contracted
pruning crews are deployed en masse to prune many trees
on a section of road in a very short period of time.
Surrey installs approximately 10,000 water bags on shade
trees and waters more than 26,000 trees per week during
the summer drought period each year.
management, natural area management, and environmental
education and stewardship programs. The majority of the tree
and forest maintenance work is carried out using contracted
services under the supervision of staff. In addition we operate
and deliver public programs through the Surrey Nature Centre.
In a typical year, we:
• Plant 5,000 new shade trees
• Prune 16,000 shade trees
• Water 26,000 shade trees each week during
the peak of our summer drought
• Maintain 150 km (93 miles) of trails in our nat-
ural areas
• Plant 10,000 new trees in natural areas
• Remove invasive species from 10 hectares (25
acres) of natural areas
• Deliver environmental education programs to
>800 elementary school students
• Respond to more than 6,000 service requests
from the public
What are some specific ways you involve the public?
NA: We involve the public in many ways. Our environmental
stewardship team engages with thousands of volunteers in tree
and natural area planting events, litter clean-ups, and invasive
plant removals. Our environmental education team runs public
programs at our Surrey Nature Centre and also at City events
such as Arbor Day, Earth Day/Party for the Planet, and National
Tree Day. Members of the public participate on urban forest
advisory committees. In addition, urban forestry staff respond
personally to every service request from the public (> 6,000 in
2016) in an effort to improve public understanding about how
and why we manage our trees and forests the way we do.
Surrey urban forestry staff work closely with developers and
home-owners to reconfigure driveways around existing city
trees.
www.urban-forestry.com 33
