Vancouver’s urban forest includes every tree in the city. With 160,000 street trees, thousands of park trees, and 713 hectares of forest, each tree plays an important environmental and social role in Vancouver, including:
Cleaning the air
Capturing carbon
Absorbing rainwater
Providing habitat
Improving our health and well-being
Protect our city from storms, extreme heat, and the impacts of climate change
Our vision is to protect, expand, and manage trees to create a diverse, resilient, and beautiful urban forest on public and private lands across our city.
Benefits of the urban forest
Vancouver will experience hotter, drier summers, more frequent and intense rainfall events, and rising sea levels because of climate change. The urban forest plays an increasingly important role as we experience the effects of climate change.
Trees play an important role in how Vancouver will capture carbon pollution. Trees capture, secure, and store carbon as they grow, keeping it out of the atmosphere. During photosynthesis, trees absorb carbon which is then deposited in tree trunks, branches, roots, leaves, dead wood, and soils. Learn more about how trees support carbon reduction in the Climate Emergency Action Plan.
Heatwaves disproportionately impact individuals and groups that are predisposed to heat illness and face systemic inequalities. Trees can shade streets and buildings during heat waves, lowering the temperature and reducing the urban heat island effect.
In Vancouver, the lowest canopy cover areas like the Downtown Eastside and Marpole experience extreme heat events more intensely. We focus our planting efforts in neighbourhoods with low canopy cover, high summer temperatures, and those identified in the VanPlay Equity Initiative Zones PDF file (12.2 MB).
Wildfire smoke is a top climate risk for Vancouver. Before 2015, air quality alerts due to wildfire smoke were almost non-existent in Vancouver. Since then there have been a cumulative 60 days with air quality advisories largely due to PM2.5 concentrations (the small particulates associated with wildfire smoke).
Trees improve the atmosphere by removing:
Carbon
Ozone
Sulfur dioxide
Other pollutants from the air while producing oxygen
They also reduce small particulate matter that can impact respiratory systems.
Trees across the city play an important role in supporting biodiversity. Our tree selection, density, and maintenance practices consider which trees best provide habitat for birds, insects, and small mammals. By planting the right species in the right place, we create connections for biodiversity to flourish across the city.
Every year, between November and April, the Urban Forestry team plants new trees across the city. We select tree species that are expected to thrive by considering future climate projections, existing urban forest diversity, and site-specific suitability.
We prioritize tree planting by targeting areas of the city with diminished canopy and typically higher temperatures where trees are needed the most. Vancouver currently has a canopy cover of 23%. We’re working to increase that to 30% by 2050.
Expanding the canopy improves our resilience to extreme weather events like the heat dome of 2021. Planting trees in areas where the heat dome was felt most intensely is a key climate adaptation tool in reducing heat island effects while providing much-needed shade for residents. As natural air purifiers and shade providers, more trees in the ground also mean an overall cooling effect for the city. In the winter, trees provide protection against extreme winds and severe winter storms.
Vancouver benefits from plentiful rain through the fall and winter but is increasingly experiencing hotter, drier summers that pose a threat to trees and other vegetation across the region.
Our team works overtime through the drought season to water trees across the city, using probes, sprinklers, and water cannons. This is especially important for young trees that need extra support to mature. Our annual watering program also allows us to monitor and evaluate tree establishment and the suitability of planting new tree species.
Support local trees by helping us water them. Trickle a hose or slowly pour a bucket of water around the base of thirsty trees twice a week, ideally in the evening to reduce evaporation.
Our Urban Forestry inspectors are experts at inspecting and monitoring tree health and condition. When making assessments we look for opportunities to improve and preserve the quality of trees and reduce the risk of trees failing.
Pruning is an essential part of tree care and must be done strategically by professionals. It supports tree health by removing dead, dying, or diseased branches and ensuring a tree does not grow beyond what it is able to support.
We recognize the value of all trees and their meaningfulness to communities and nature. However, when trees are diseased, dead, present a risk to public safety or infrastructure, or certain development is underway, some trees need to be removed.
Stumping is a challenging aspect of tree removal. Trees grow deep roots, under city pavements and infrastructure. When it’s time to remove a stump, it must be done carefully so as not to damage its surroundings.
Our expert staff use a grinder to break the stump down into mulch that can be more easily removed.
Learn about how businesses and households can help grow our urban forest by planting trees on private property.
The Urban Forest Strategy
We recognize there are competing values and objectives in dealing with trees. This strategy provides a clear and balanced approach to protecting and expanding the urban forest in our city.
An update on the Urban Forestry Strategy will be communicated in fall 2023. To learn more about this initiative, see the details below.
April 30, 2018 – The Park Board received the Urban Forest Strategy: 2018 update, for information, which was carried unanimously to guide the Park Board’s efforts to protect and manage Vancouver’s urban forest on public lands.
The Urban Forest Strategy started in 2011 as a priority item under the Greenest City 2020 Action Plan. The strategy was supported through motions approved by the Park Board and Council in 2012.
The City currently has plans, bylaws, and policies governing trees across different departments. The City and Park Board have identified a need for a dedicated and long term approach to sustain our urban forest, and to align with emerging trends and best practices.
Identifying and reversing the decline of our urban forest
While Vancouver boasts a spectacular urban forest, research commissioned by the Park Board shows that our urban forest is shrinking – even though we’ve planted thousands of trees in recent years on City boulevards, streets, and parks. Private property is the area with the most dramatic loss of trees, through the unintended consequences of allowed tree removal.
When the number of trees diminishes, so do the benefits these trees provide. Our study found that 18% of Vancouver is covered by tree canopy compared to 22.5% nearly twenty years ago. These findings prompted our immediate action to address the loss of urban forest and to protect healthy trees.
Better protecting healthy trees on private property
Action #1 in the Urban Forest Strategy is an amendment to the Protection of Trees Bylaw that currently permits the removal of one tree per year from private property. The amendment will help stop unnecessary removal of healthy and mature trees on private property.
