Niagara Region will be circulating a Brock University tree-planting proposal to area municipalities and the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority (NPCA) as a possible way of addressing climate change.

“It may be that we would likely be getting into tree-planting programs that are much more significant and go beyond community boundaries, so I think they (Brock students) are scratching a very important surface here,” said Rino Mostacci, the Region’s Commissioner of Planning and Development Services.

Mostacci’s comments came during a meeting of the Region’s Planning and Development Committee Wednesday, March 22 at which graduate student Alyssa Davis in Brock University’s Department of Earth Sciences presented a “Two-for-One Trees” proposal that she and her Environmental Assessment class put together.

Committee members passed a motion by Dave Augustyn, Pelham Mayor and Niagara Regional Councillor, that Davis’ presentation be circulated to the 12 municipalities and the NPCA and “that the presentation be referred to staff for report on the impacts for the region and recommendations on how the Region might enact a similar policy.”

The proposal essentially calls for two trees to be planted for every tree cut down.

“We see tree planting as one of the easiest efforts we can undertake to combat the issue of global warming,” said Davis.

“We were thinking that the Region and its municipalities would be in the perfect position to do this because they’re in charge of maintaining roadways, parks and other public land,” said fellow graduate student Kristen Shaver, who joined Davis in the question-and-answer period.

The planting of trees can be used as a strategy to mitigate the effects of global warming.

During the process of photosynthesis, trees remove carbon dioxide from and release oxygen back into the atmosphere. The carbon is then stored within the plant’s woody tissues.

Anthropogenic carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere is the largest contributor to global warming. While some carbon dioxide originates from natural sources, much of it comes from burning fossil fuels, cutting down forests and other human activities.

Fascinated by trees’ role in removing carbon dioxide, Davis, Shaver and other students in Brand’s Environmental Assessment class were spurred on by a comment their professor made noticing a lack of trees on a highway he uses to commute to work.

“Dr. Brand thought that there may have been a policy for Pelham and we thought, ‘let’s just look at all of the municipalities within the region and see if there was something for all of them related to tree planting’,” Davis recalled.

It quickly became a class research project. Shaver explains that each student in the class picked one to three of Niagara Region’s 12 municipalities.

“We looked into tree-planting policies, bylaws, statements they have posted online; we called, e-mailed, we got as much information as possible,” Shaver said.

The class found that, of Niagara Region’s 12 municipalities, only five had policies that required a minimum of one tree be planted for every one removed, and of those five, only one mentioned maintaining newly-planted trees to ensure their survival.

The class then crafted measures for a tree-planting policy, including:

• Plant two trees for every one that is removed; this is because a healthy, mature tree traps more carbon dioxide than a smaller tree. This requirement could be implemented at the building permit and subdivision levels as well as on public lands
• Make mulch or building materials out of trees that have been removed instead of allowing the trees to rot or burn; this keeps the carbon sequestered than being released back into the atmosphere
• Sell these materials and use the money to maintain the tree-planting program

“We can start at this level within the Niagara region and then hopefully move forward to all municipalities across Canada,” said Davis.

At the conclusion of Wednesday’s Planning and Development Committee meeting, Mostacci explained that Niagara Region had endorsed a “work program” to address climate change and become net zero communities.

“Net zero” refers to buildings’ energy use being roughly equal to the amount of energy they generate through solar panels or other measures, greatly reducing reliance on fossil fuels or electricity.

Mostacci said part of the work program involves researching greenhouse gas inventories and other climate change impacts in Niagara Region and measures the Region could implement to move to net zero communities.

“Retaining and planting additional trees is a significant part of that,” he said.

The class’s research went beyond the Niagara region.

In the process, the student researchers uncovered some fascinating facts from existing studies:

• there are more than 318 billion trees in Canada
• Canada has the second largest number of trees on Earth next to Russia
• it takes about 63 small trees to trap one tonne of C02 per year
• Canadian trees can store anywhere from 5,091 to 114,545 Mt (megatonnes) of carbon dioxide each year
• Canada emits an estimated 7,647 Mt each year through anthropogenic (732 Mt) sources and natural processes such as soil degassing (6,600 Mt) and wildfires (315Mt)