News
Green Streets Canada 2007-8 Continues to Advance Innovative, Urban Forest Practices
Ottawa, November 13, 2006 — Today, Jeff Monty, the President of Tree Canada, announced the launch of the Green Streets Canada 2007 program.
"Urban forests are crucial to the well-being of Canadians - 80% of whom live in urban areas", he said. "With greater pressures on these forests, Green Streets Canada will continue to encourage innovative practices and policies in urban forest management. Urban forests are 'Green Infrastructure' - a crucial asset in ensuring the quality of Canada's air that we breath and the water that we drink", he said.
Municipalities and First Nations communities across Canada are invited to put forward proposals for innovative approaches and tools in urban forest planning and management, including single tree and stand demonstration projects; policy development, best practices workshops, outreach and education. The program contributes a minimum 50/50 funding through a competitive bid process.
In 2006, winning proposals from 24 communities were accepted and supported. Examples included:
| Edmunston, NB |
Diversification in streetside plantings/citizen group creation |
| Gatineau, PQ |
Advanced inventory through UFORE system, inventory of wooded areas and planting/awareness program |
| Mississauga, ON |
Invasive species monitoring, protection and education. |
| Thunder Bay, ON |
Community tree stewardship program. |
| Winnipeg, MB |
Tree inventory, planting, education, maintenance and research projects (vertical mulching) |
| Hinton, AB |
Diversification in inventory and parks plantings. |
| Surrey, BC |
Restoration of Green Timbers Arboretum: inventory, alien invasive removals, public access, tree restoration |
| Takla First Nations |
Developing youth oriented education program on forested ecosystems based on traditional knowledge |
| Lake Cowichan, BC |
Source water protection and education program |
For this coming year, municipalities and First Nations have until February 2, 2007 to apply. Applications and information are available on the Foundation's website: www.tcf-fca.ca.
The Canadian Forest Service, Natural Resources Canada is the principal funding sponsor for the Green Streets Program. Other funders include Trans Canada and BC Hydro.
Backgrounder
There have been 355 Canadian communities who have participated in the Green Streets Program since 1994 with over $2 million in funding being committed to trees and their care.
Through programs such as this, and with the support of its individual supporters and sponsors, Tree Canada helps focus attention on the increasing importance of urban forests in Canada.
The Tree Canada is a not-for-profit charitable organization established to encourage Canadians to plant and care for trees in urban and rural environments. To date it has engaged Canada's top companies, public agencies, individuals and volunteers to support the planting and maintenance of over 74 million trees, the regreening of over 400 schoolyards, seven national urban forest conferences, 30 carbon neutral conferences and other efforts to sensitize Canadians to the benefits of planting and maintaining trees.
For further information contact:
Michael Rosen, Tree Canada: (877) 666-1444ext222; tcf@treecanada.ca
