City Trees

Canadian Urban Forest Strategy (CUFS) The CUFS offers guiding principles for urban for- estry at the national level. In recent years, more and more Canadian municipalities have been develop- ing urban forest management plans and tree pro- tection policies. Feedback from stakeholders and members has evidenced the need for a national strategy supported by all levels of government; as the Secretariat for the CUFS, Tree Canada promotes its importance to municipal, provincial, and federal levels. In collaboration with multiple and diverse part- ners, several recent achievements of CUFS include: • Conducting the State of Canada's Municipal Forests Survey. This study offers insights into municipal forestry practices, inventory systems, canopy cover, bylaws, budgets, and social con- siderations. The findings were incorporated into Tree Canada's report, Trends in Canada's Urban Forests (Bardekjian, Kenney, & Rosen, 2016). • Guiding a national-scale municipal research needs assessment in collaboration with Laval University (Larouche, 2017). From 192 responses across 167 municipalities of 5,000 inhabitants or more, this study offers insights into cities' urban forest management structures, expectations, and research needs in applied and social contexts. • Mapping Canada's Urban Forestry Footprint in collaboration with the University of Toronto with support from Mitacs (Puric-Mladenovic, Yung, & Bardekjian 2017). This study profiles and maps the communities across Canada that have urban forestry departments, manage- ment plans, and tree protection bylaws. • Contributing to a labour market research proj- ect with the Career Foundation, International Society of Arboriculture-Ontario Chapter, Ontario Commercial Arborists Association, and indus- try partners to identify the barriers and issues that prevent people from pursuing employment opportunities in the field of arboriculture (2017- 2018). This study aims to increase recruitment. • Contributing to the development of an urban forestry carbon protocol supported by Environment Canada and multiple aca- demic partners (2017-2018). This study gen- erated the first national database of urban forest inventories from 181 municipalities across Canada. It contends that a standardized national urban forest inventory and monitoring approach will support a better understanding of urban forest carbon dynamics and enable policy and management improvements. • Contributing to a literature review of peer-re- viewed articles on the benefits of urban for- ests for public health led by Health Canada's Climate Change and Innovation Bureau and the University of Washington (Wolf et al., 2018). This study is the first systematic review to focus on urban trees (rather than broader green- spaces, corridors, and parks) as a benefi- cial source for human health and wellbeing. • Examining the needs of Indigenous commu- nities with respect to urban greening proj- ects in collaboration with the Canadian Forest Service by analyzing past Tree Canada grant recipients (Gosselin-Hebert et al., 2018). This study seeks more inclusive ways to bet- ter integrate Indigenous perspectives and knowledge into program practices. • Collaborating with various academic institutions to integrate and advance urban forestry education in higher learning. This includes contributing to the University of British Columbia's Bachelor of Urban Forestry program and collaborating on an appli- cation to develop a professional training program with multiple academic partners led by l'Univer- sité du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) (2017-2018). The CUFN Steering Committee, along with a second- ary review committee consisting of provincial and federal government representatives, is currently in the process of updating the Canadian Urban Forest Strategy for the 2019-2024 term. This process began with public consultation workshops in autumn of 2015. The new version of the CUFS (2019-2024) will be presented at the 2018 International Urban Forestry Congress in October in Vancouver, BC. 18 CityTREES

• Cover