Cool Trees in The City (of Toronto)

When we think of forest management and forestry, we often conjure up images of large swaths of untouched land with trees that span for kilometres on end. But did you know that forest management can play an important role in cities too? The shade of a tree canopy provides cooling in the city and trees help manage drought and floods. This week we sit down with Kim Statham, the City of Toronto’s Director of Urban Forestry to learn more.
Kim talks about what urban forestry is and her office’s role of managing, stewarding, and developing programming for Toronto’s urban forest. We discuss some of the challenges the city’s canopy is facing, what opportunities are available, and the programs the city is undertaking to meet its canopy cover goals and promote the urban landscape’s biodiversity and climate resilience.

Check out Toronto's Tree City of the World Award news release.

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Transcript

Jan Sumner: 0:00

Welcome to the Clear Cut. Hi, I'm Janet Sumner, Executive Director at Wildlands League.

Kaya Adleman: 0:08

And I'm Kaya Adelman, Carbon Manager at Wildlands League.

Jan Sumner: 0:14

Wildlands League is a Canadian conservation organization working on protecting the natural world.

Kaya Adleman: 0:21

The Clear Cut is bringing to you the much-needed conversation on Canadian forest management and how we can better protect one of Canada's most important ecosystems, as our forests are reaching a tipping point.

Jan Sumner: 0:40

All right, before we get started, and we've got a terrific introduction with Kim Statham from the City of Toronto, who manages the urban forestry for the city. She manages forestry for the entire city of Toronto. She doesn't have a line of sight on some of these very contentious issues where forestry is happening or where trees are being removed, for example, with Ontario Place, where 850 trees are slated to be removed.

Kaya Adleman: 1:16

For our listeners who aren't living in Toronto what is Ontario Place?

Jan Sumner: 1:21

Right. So it's a development down on the waterfront in Toronto. It has been a destination for a number of years to go to concerts or to go for some events. They've had some Winterfest events there, etc. It's right across the lakeshore portion of the Canadian National Exhibition, across from the CNE, so that's approximately where it is in the city of Toronto.

Jan Sumner: 1:46

It's a little bit west of the downtown core and for a number of years there had been some consideration to put a casino there and then that was revamped and I gather they're going to put a large spa there and they're talking about it being a destination place for five million visitors a year is uh, yeah, I don't know, kaya, if you saw the news. You may not have, but last night the judges ruled that the court case brought by the group, so the friends of ontario place, couldn't go forward because there had been a new law passed by the province of ontario, by the premier, that did not allow an environmental assessment to go forward on Ontario Place, where there are these 850 trees and the group had been asking for, you know, a chance to get an environmental assessment done there.

Kaya Adleman: 2:34

And last night on June 11th yeah, at the time we're recording this.

Jan Sumner: 2:38

Yeah. So I'm sure there are some folks around the city who are feeling a little bit bruised by that today around the city who are feeling a little bit bruised by that today, and this is all a loss to the city of Toronto. When we have to lose, you know, in some cases 1,500 trees and in some cases, like the Ontario Place one with 850 mature trees. So these are all losses that you know, we don't kind of sit down as a city and say what does this mean? Overall, they're almost like isolated incidences.

Jan Sumner: 3:07

I'm sure this is happening across Canada, it's not just the city of Toronto, although you may not have had legislation introduced by your premier to prevent you from looking at endangered species or environmental assessments, but the same problem is there in terms of urban forestry. There are so many things eating away at the pockets of nature and it's not necessarily happening in a thoughtful, concerted plan. What can it control? And when does the province come in and say, well, no, we're going to take this over, or we're going to manage this, or you don't get a line of sight and you can't challenge it and you can't look at endangered species or an environmental assessment. So that's a context everybody should have in mind and this discussion that we're having with Kim. Even though she is managing forestry urban forestry for the city of Toronto, she doesn't have a line of sight on everything. She talks about. That in the pod.

Kaya Adleman: 4:09

Yeah.

Jan Sumner: 4:13

Okay, kaya, we are just about to start our interview with Kim Statham, and I've known Kim ooh, it's definitely over 10 years, I can tell you, Janet, it's 17.

Kim Statham: 4:27

17. Because I joined your board when I was eight months pregnant with my first born daughter.

Jan Sumner: 4:33

Oh, my goodness. Okay. So 17 years I've known Kim and we've invited her here to. We often are talking about forestry and everybody thinks, oh, it's all this forestry that's out there in the big wide world and it's commercial and it's big feller bunches and all the rest of it. But today we get a treat because we're going to go inside the depths of the city of toronto and start talking about urban forestry, which is very, very important, uh, for people who live in cities, but also for the planet and for nature and, more broadly, for Canada. So hopefully we get into all of that good stuff and I'm looking forward to this. How about you, kaya?

Kaya Adleman: 5:10

Oh, I'm really excited. I mean, I'm an urbanist that's one of my identifiers and I love trees and I love cities and I love the crossover between the two. So I'm very excited to have this discussion.

Jan Sumner: 5:28

All right, Kim, tell us a little bit about you other than the fact that we've known each other 17 years and it was at the eight months pregnant. That's right.

Kim Statham: 5:38

That's right. No rest for the wicked. Well so pleased to be here. I have worked in service of Toronto's urban forest for 25 years this year, so I have a long history, like you, of living in a city, playing in a city and being really interested, passionate and dedicated about trees and natural environment in urban environments environment in urban environments. I'm currently the director of Toronto Urban Forestry. I look after tree planting, forest and natural area management, tree protection and all of our policy standards and strategies.

Kim Statham: 6:18

I have the best portfolio Really, uh work. And I, I think you know maybe I came came by this work naturally. In fact, I might actually come by it genetically. I'm the great granddaughter of lumberjacks, uh, from the penitent wishing area. But before I even knew that, I started a career in environmental science. My background is landscape ecology. I've studied conservation policy. I grew up in the 70s and 80s where we got kicked out at sunrise and we didn't come home until the streetlights were on. I grew up in the GTA and spent a lot of summers with family in the Ottawa area. I was that kid who just got to nature play, explore forests, explore species all day long, first one in, last one out of the lake. That's about as natural as you come by a career and a lifelong passion, I think.

Jan Sumner: 7:22

I think, being the descendant of lumberjacks, just about says it all.

Kim Statham: 7:30

I have some work to do. That's fantastic.

Kaya Adleman: 7:42

For our listeners and the purposes of the podcast episode, could you maybe like define what urban forestry is and how it's different than just the traditional sense of the word forestry?

Kim Statham: 7:51

Sure, well, if any of your listeners are. You know forestry students, the very first definition you learn is from Jorgensen, and you know 1974, urban forestry was defined as a specialized branch of forestry and has its objectives to the cultivation and management of trees for their present and potential contribution to the psychological, sociological and economic well-being of urban society. So decades ago we recognize that value of trees in an urban setting and we still see that today. You know I wake up every morning, as you know, director of Toronto Urban Forestry.

Kim Statham: 8:36

My day could be about trees, it could be about soil, it could be about fundraising, it could be about community programming, it could be about partnerships, growing conditions, amazing studies, like our tree canopy studies. It inherently links nature and trees to communities and cities that depend on them and it's a very different type of management than you would see in traditional forestry, in crown forests or in other large areas, for that matter. Urban forestry is different for every city, whether you're a town, hamlet, one of the largest cities in North America, it looks different. But I feel that the key ingredient is that relationship, that key relationship between trees and people wow, that's a pretty big job, kim yeah, 25 years and counting yeah, you must have.

Kim Statham: 10:16

Well, you certainly sound like you have a deep and abiding passion for it I do and, um, you know, one thing that someone commented to me, uh, once was really that same interest and dedication of all of my team. You know, people choose to go into forestry, people choose to go into environmental science for all kinds of reasons and I really find that my team, the folks that I interact with, we're here for all the right reasons and we're so passionate about it. You know, whether it's you know, folks that are studying invasive species or forest pests, whether it's, you know, my team that is enforcing bylaws, looking at development review, folks who are choosing species, the right species for our streets, for our parks, for our natural areas, folks who are writing policies and strategies to help us. You know, get there and guide the way. We all have a really, really innate love for this work that we do.

Jan Sumner: 11:23

And I would hazard to say that the people of Toronto have an innate love for how green the city is. So you mentioned all the different things that you do at the city of Toronto. Can you maybe unpack that a little bit more? The organizational structure like which? Which department do you sit in and like?

Kim Statham: 11:53

yeah, toronto urban forestry is within parks, forestry and recreation division at the city of Toronto. We're a frontline division, we have a lot of interaction with the public, we are, we are managers, we're stewards, we're programmers of public space and public realm and the work that we do is so important to the quality of life, to the livability of cities, and the work that we do is very interesting and very important.

Jan Sumner: 12:28

And how much land are we talking about, like what is the? I mean, obviously in a city there's roads and you know, public spaces like people shopping and homing, home spaces, et cetera, but what are we talking about in terms of the amount of land that you're managing?

Kim Statham: 12:48

So we have over 1500 parks in the city of Toronto. We define our ravine lands or our natural areas, and we have 17% of Toronto's land base is protected by our ravine and natural feature bylaw. That's important because it recognizes the topography and these really unique natural spaces. 30% of Toronto's population live within a 10 to 15 minute walk of one of these natural areas. That's incredible in terms of access access to nature, access to trees and forests and I think that you know 30% equates to over a million people, so that's a very incredible resource.

Jan Sumner: 13:47

Yeah, that's really fantastic and I think you were mentioning this to us before that the ravine system in Toronto, I mean it's one of the places that you can't build a house on right. It is protected as a natural area.

Kim Statham: 14:03

Not every city has that luxury argue, one of the things that makes Toronto unique is that natural topography and is this ravine system. We have six rivers, three massive watersheds, six in total that run through the city. You know, along with the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority regulations, we have quite a lot of protected area in this city and I argue that we have. That's why we have 89 ecologically sensitive areas. It's why we have a tree canopy of roughly 31%, it's why we have 11.5 million trees in Toronto on both public and private land. It's really our natural history that has shaped how our city has grown and how we have and continue to protect and conserve these natural areas.

Jan Sumner: 15:02

So I know some cities have a canopy cover target or they might have a vegetation target. Does Toronto have one?

Kim Statham: 15:10

We do. Our tree canopy target is 40% by 2050. And that aligns with the good folks and colleagues in our environment and climate division who have net zero goals by 2040 as well as 2050.

Jan Sumner: 15:27

Can you draw me the you said it aligns with them? Can you maybe say a little bit more about what that alignment is?

Kim Statham: 15:33

Well, net zero is about emission reduction, greenhouse gas emission reduction, and we see that primarily in a lot of cities. You know see that in the building sector and transportation sector. You know see that in the building sector and transportation sector, Trees, green infrastructure are, and ultimately, nature based solutions are a huge part of climate resiliency of cities. And so when we look at, well, how are we drawing down, how are we reducing greenhouse gas emissions? Well, what's here, on the other side of in our green infrastructure, what is sequestering carbon, what is storing carbon perpetually, even though forests are a natural system constantly growing, maturing, dying, growing again, that that you know overall resource, that urban forest is this perpetual cycle of carbon sequestration and storage. And so these things need to go hand in hand, both the gray side as well as the green side.

Jan Sumner: 16:38

And are you currently tracking how much carbon is being absorbed by the city's trees and forests?

Kim Statham: 16:47

So, like any good city, we want to know what we have, and so Toronto has undertaken now two tree canopy studies, one in 2008 and one in 2018. And part of what we measure in a tree canopy study are those environmental benefits, or ecosystem services, if you will. So in 2018, the annual ecosystem services provided by Toronto's urban forest equaled a total of $55 million every year, and that is broken down into $4 million in gross carbon sequestration, $37.6 million in pollution removal, $4.8 million in avoided runoff, million in pollution removal, 4.8 million in avoided runoff and 8.2 million in energy savings. It's quite obvious how you know the you know trees benefit, the energy efficiency of buildings, how our footprint, our access to soil, plantable areas, how. This is all one you know, one you know set of resources that we need to measure.

Jan Sumner: 17:58

Yeah, I want to dig in a bit more there on that because I know for some people they may not think of these terms, but because I've been around the block a couple of times. I've worked on a variety of issues, from climate change to nature conservation, and I know that one of the important things that trees do in a city is they're actually a cooling agent, and that reduces our reliance on air conditioning for when it gets really hot in the summer. So if you're lucky enough in the city of Toronto to be living in an area that gets cooled by trees, maybe your office, maybe your home draws much less demand on the air cooling capacity for the city, which can run quite high in a very, very hot summer. That would be one way in which trees are providing that energy benefit right.

Kim Statham: 18:49

Absolutely, and for those that don't have cooling systems where they live or where they work. This is where Toronto's park system and ravine system is a sense of refuge. We saw it through COVID for a number of other reasons. This dependence, this need for these natural areas for people to seek refuge, solitude, recreation, meeting places, community hubs. Think of, you know, think of any hot summer day, you know, living in Toronto, and think about the streets you choose to walk down. Think about the parks that you choose to visit. Think about where you sit. You know when you're in that park, and it will be in the shade of a tree. It will be next to, you know, one of our rivers, or maybe next to Lake Ontario, lake Ontario. We need these nature elements in any big city to contribute to it's a critical part of quality of life and livability.

Jan Sumner: 20:03

We now have qualified to be able to run commercials on our podcast. This may not seem like a good thing for some people, but for us at the Clear Cut it's a very good thing. It means that you our public are now downloading over a thousand copies of each episode a month, which is fantastic, and it puts us into a new bracket where people want to actually advertise on the podcast. We are going to do our very best to make sure that the ads that run on the podcast are something that may be of relevance or of interest to you, and hope that you can listen to these ads and see them as a marker of success and your faith in the podcast. So thank you so much for listening to the Clear Cut. I know that, kaya and I appreciate it so very, very much. Thank you so much for listening to the Clear Cut. I know that Kaya and I appreciate it so very, very much. Thank you.

Jan Sumner: 20:56

And I know that the city of Toronto is trying to get to a 40% tree canopy cover and I imagine that that has something to do with also the distance from nature for the average person. Is there any kind of guideline that you're using to say, well, we've got this much and we're going to try and hit this tree canopy cover, but how do we actually make sure that everybody is within I don't know? 20 minutes, half an hour, whatever it is? What's your metric that you're using to say we have to have access for nature, for this many Torontonians?

Kim Statham: 21:27

So, back in 2021, we had finished our second tree canopy study. We were aware of the trends that we were seeing. At that time. We had seen that our canopy had generally increased about 2%, which is pretty significant, considering in that 10 years we had the peak of emerald ash borer, one of well, north America's greatest forest insect pests. Our tree numbers increased by about 1.3 million. Our street tree condition improved, overall tree diversity increased um.

Kim Statham: 22:13

But something remained over that 10-year trend, and that was the inequitable distribution of Toronto's urban forest. Again, I think in large part due to the natural topography of the city. We have areas that we didn't develop, that we protect, we have a really strong park system and street tree network, but inherently we have inequity across our geography, and that was something that we wanted to really look at and deal with straight on. We adopted a tree equity approach. And what tree equity is?

Kim Statham: 23:02

It's a concept from American forests, an American not-for-profit, who have an assessment tool that in cities, it's not just about where your canopy is, but it's about these key socio-equity factors that should be considered, like demographics, like race, like income and surface temperature, so where you know where are the hottest neighborhoods within a city. And so we did an analysis to look at tree equity across Toronto with all of these layers, and that is what is going to guide our prioritization for intervention. Tree equity is about allowing and having the benefits of trees available to all of its citizens, and I really love this approach. It is you know, we really take equity as a factor in all of the work that we do, and applying it to tree equity and how we expand Toronto's urban forest to reach that 40% goal is imperative and it's necessary.

Kaya Adleman: 24:16

Did you find that, I guess where the percentage of tree canopy was the highest in Toronto often fell like a long socioeconomic demographic factors?

Kim Statham: 24:29

So Toronto's pattern of tree canopy is really a reflection of our topography. So Toronto's urban canopy is made up, of course, from land on public but as well as private land, and patterns of neighbourhoods correlate with our tree canopy. And where we're looking to do that, those interventions where we see low tree equity, are areas that we look for available space, we look for ability to improve biodiversity and, of course course, look at toward the communities to be involved in expanding canopies and at the very neighborhood level.

Jan Sumner: 25:19

Mm-hmm. So I liked what you were saying there in terms of we have kind of the public places where we have trees and vegetation. We also have a city or the road canopy or what were you talking about? The city?

Kim Statham: 25:41

street.

Jan Sumner: 25:41

Oh, like a street tree canopy yeah, street tree canopy, and then you also have contributions that are made from private land. So, for example, in my backyard I have 10 nice big trees just because I inherited that. That's what was here when I moved in, and I'm lucky enough to have that because it was a piece of land that some family had owned since the 1970s and so the trees were still here and it was fantastic. In fact, a couple of these trees are close to 200 years old. So that's fantastic, right, but that's something that I inherited it, you know or not inherited? I bought and it was here, but that comes from a private land contribution. And then you've got the street canopy, and then you've got the places where you might have a parquet or a park or a more public space or a ravine where you have trees. So all of those contribute to that. And are you like, obviously you're not managing the trees on my private land, but you're managing all the other trees, right?

Kim Statham: 26:42

So we have a unique role to play on private land. Back again in about 2021, our tree planting strategy identified neighborhoods, private land in neighborhoods, as one of the best opportunities to expand Toronto's canopy and since that time we've developed and grown a grants and incentives program where we provide free trees to individual landowners, to community groups, to increase canopy on private land. We have an initiative right now Community Canopies where you can go online and register for a free tree. This is in partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation barriers for home and landowners to increase canopy and that's a fantastic program. I think to date we've given out approximately 120,000 trees through that program.

Jan Sumner: 27:51

I had one put on my front lawn.

Kim Statham: 27:53

There you go. And then the other role we play on private land is through our tree bylaws, is through our tree bylaws. Toronto has a suite of tree protection bylaws for private trees and properties within the ravine lands where we regulate tree removal and injury in service of retaining Toronto's existing tree canopy. But also it gives us the ability to minimize impacts and maximize compensation when trees do need to be removed or injured for a variety of reasons.

Jan Sumner: 28:43

And is this something that, like? I know that not every city has the wealth that Toronto does, but I do know that many cities have canopy targets or are looking at vegetation targets, and I know that you don't just you know, just go to your own little office, but you're actually networking and going beyond the city in terms of understanding what is happening out in the broader world. Can you give us any insight into that?

Kim Statham: 29:10

Well, you're right, natural systems, tree canopies don't stop at our you know geographic and municipal borders. We have vegetation zones that change, so you know, species that you see in southern Ontario are different than the ones that you see here on the north shore of Lake Ontario and that's different than what you see in northern Ontario. What's important is, I think, that network of knowledge management. You know stewardship and there's a number of different. You know stewardship and there's a number of different. You know organizations that keep that in mind.

Kim Statham: 29:52

I was very honored to be recently elected to the Ontario chapter of the International Society of Arbora Culture this new board position for me, janet and it's been fantastic to collaborate with not just municipal you know managers, but with practitioners, with growers, with researchers and academics. We have a lot to learn from each other, especially at this time where we're experiencing climate change. We're very curious what that impact will be on our vegetation zones, on our growing seasons, how species react to whether it's drought, whether it's extreme temperature, and so it's very important to have a network in urban forestry where we can learn from each other and really put those best practices into place.

Jan Sumner: 30:51

What are some like? We talked about urban forestry and some of that is individual trees, sometimes it's collections of trees, sometimes it's different types of vegetation with trees, et cetera. But if you were to sit down and think about the areas in Toronto that have like a forest, what would be some of your favorites?

Kim Statham: 31:10

Oh, you're going to give away all my secrets here. This is where you find me sauntering around on weekends.

Jan Sumner: 31:15

Yeah, yeah.

Kim Statham: 31:17

So when I started my career here at the city, I was responsible to design and implement restoration projects in the ravines with the help of community volunteers. To say that I started my career, as you know, with the gold star. That was it. That was fantastic work. I specifically looked after the Upper Don watershed. So while the headwaters of the Don originate north of our political boundaries for your listeners that includes the branches of the West Don, the East Don they travel south, meet Taylor Massey Creek and continue as the Lower Don River down toward Lake Ontario. So a lot of the places that are closest to my heart are the ones where I worked with kids, adults, community members, corporate events, where we planted trees, we planted native materials to improve biodiversity, to improve the ecological integrity of these spaces.

Kim Statham: 32:30

Glendon Forest is located within the Sunnybrook Park complex at the entrance the main entrance there is at Eglinton and Leslie and it's it runs north towards Glendon campus, part of of York university, and that is a very, very special place, a mix of riparian, uh wetland and uh forest habitat. Um Earl Bales forest, bathurst and Shepherd is the best place to go see spring ephemerals, trilliums, gentian ground, ginger, mayflower. Stay on the trails, please, people, but go and check out.

Jan Sumner: 33:56

That forest understory is among my, my favorite so that would be right around now, right it's? Yes, it was okay, all right, cool. Um, that's. That's really interesting. That's that's from somebody who's worked for 25 years on toronto's forest. Um, so what's the? What are the hopes and challenges or the goals for Toronto? We've talked about the canopy. Are there other? Yeah, what are the positive? What are the trends? Where is this going?

Kim Statham: 34:33

That's an interesting question because I think if you asked me last year, if you ask me in five years, I might have a different answer. Right now, I'm interested in a number of things. I think you know. Coming through a global pandemic, I think that climate change and conversations around climate resiliency are becoming commonplace among many generations. I am really inspired to see how passionate people are about trees in their neighborhoods, about nature in their cities. There's an opportunity. I mean, I've been doing community engagement for as long as I've been here. Um, I've always had hundreds of people coming out to events. I've always had folks that that are are interested in having hands-on play in ecological sustainability, in climate adaptation and mitigation, and I think we're really on the cusp of this incredible participatory engagement between neighborhoods, communities and our urban forests, and we need that. How can we as a city or a province or a country, protect and expand these natural areas without the people who live in these cities, in this province, in this country, really feeling passionate about whether it's the one tree you know around the corner, whether it's the grove of trees in, you know their local park, or whether it's the trail that they walk or ride or travel to, you know destination where people go to seek that refuge. So I'm very excited, very excited about this engaged community that we have in Toronto.

Kim Statham: 36:49

I'd like to talk about a very specific ecosystem restoration project that we've done for decades. That we've done for decades, and that's our high park traditional and prescribed burn. This is a really unique habitat. The heart of the city is our Black Oak Savannah, and Black Oak Savannas depend on fire to regenerate, to compete against invasive species and lots of other challenges that you see um, especially here in urban areas. And so you know, while we've been, you know, doing this for I think roughly 20 years, um, burning as a land management technique has been taking place since time immemorial by our Indigenous communities. The last few years, our burn at High Park has benefited from the sharing of Indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing and being, and it just took place earlier in April. It is such an incredible I was going to say event. Really. It's months of planning and just to see how much the event has been improved by Indigenous ceremony, by Indigenous knowledge, and we work with the Indigenous Land Stewards.