Anyone planning to hang decorations on or make changes to the area around a town-owned tree might want to think twice.
Council approved a recommendation from the green initiative advisory committee to adopt the new Public Tree Protection bylaw during the regular council meeting on Tuesday evening, March 19.
According to a recent report to the committee from landscape architect Shan Tennyson, the bylaw applies to any town-owned tree which could be located in parks, woodlots or other town-owned lands, including boulevards — the portion of the road right-of-way between the outside edge of the road and the private property line.
The bylaw makes it an offence to damage any of those trees, either directly — such as through destruction, injury, cutting roots, applying chemicals or attaching something to the tree — or indirectly — such as through compacting soil, altering grading or adding hardscaping nearby.
“It’s great,” Ward 2 Coun. and chair of the committee Jonathan Scott said in an interview, adding that in his time with the committee he estimates they have received close to 100 comments or complaints from residents asking for some form of tree preservation.
While he acknowledged that many of those complaints were regarding clear cutting of larger woodlots for development, Scott said the committee agreed with staff that it was best to start with town-owned trees before branching out.
“It’s the low-hanging fruit,” he said. “It creates a framework, it creates a process, and we can build on top of the foundation this public tree bylaw presents us.”
It also has the potential to reduce or recover costs for the town, as Scott estimates the municipality replaces about two dozen trees each year at a cost of about $700 each.
In most of the last several years, the town has spent more than $130,000 on tree replacement, according to budget documents, and for 2024 the budget for that program was increased to $155,000.
“In some parts of town, people ... are inadvertently damaging the trees, because they cover the town-owned boulevard in concrete or rock while landscaping and then they wonder why a sapling dies,” Scott said. “We don’t have the money to be replacing dozens of trees a year.”
According to the report, the town plants an average of 180 new trees each year within the urban boundary of Bradford with most being planted in the boulevards of residential subdivisions, and young trees planted in those locations account for more than 90 per cent of those requiring removal and replacement.
Staff conducted a preliminary survey of 20 streets in some newer developments in town, including: north of Line 8; west of Simcoe Road and south of Line 6; as well as west of Langford Boulevard and south of Holland Street.
Based on the results, 20 to 40 per cent of the boulevard trees on those streets “have experienced encroachments in close proximity ... which may impact the health of town trees.”
Not only does Tennyson note the increased stress on stormwater systems and the flood risks of too much hard-surfacing, which prevents the ground from absorbing water, she also lists some of the many benefits provided by trees, which extend beyond absorbing carbon dioxide and providing oxygen to also include removing air pollutants, providing shade and cooling, reducing soil erosion, providing food and habitat for animals and insects, increasing aesthetics and even reducing stress and increasing well-being of residents.
While the bylaw doesn’t include any fee schedule for violations, it does explain that enforcement officers can issue orders for work to be done, that if the work is not done the town may have it done at the property owner’s expense, and that the town can recover any related costs by invoicing the owner, which if not paid on time, could then be added to the tax bill with interest.
Scott recalled the committee wanted to take a “restorative justice” approach which would give enforcement officers discretion to work with the person responsible for the violation.
“That was the intention, that it wouldn’t be too prescriptive, because we want to have a collaborative approach to problem solve rather than to punish,” he said.
Similarly, he explained the bylaw uses language to “broadly capture possibilities” which again allows enforcement officers to use discretion in determining what is “actually problematic in a certain situation.”
While the report suggests a future phase could expand the bylaw to include regulations to protect trees on private property, Scott explained it would likely have little impact on homeowners.
“I don’t think we really want to get into policing residential homes, but big properties that are being developed, I think that’s where the committee wants to see further protections,” he said.