The KBCA met recently with the Forestry group at the City of Ottawa to understand what is happening with regards to Ash trees and other City pruning and removal and to understand what replanting options are available to home owners, plus what they recommend as appropriate trees for Beaverbrook as many of our trees planted in 1965 are nearing end of life or are being removed due to damage or over sized for their lots. They could not provide Beaverbrook specific tree recommendations as it is highly dependent on the specific property/location. However, they were able to provide a wealth of other information

The City of Ottawa Forestry deparatment have pulled together some information regarding the City’s available tree programs for residents, current and future tree maintenance plans and planting plans for the Beaverbrook area as well as other miscellaneous tree information that may be of some use to residents.

As a first step, residents should be aware of their property boundaries. Forestry only provides maintenance and tree planting programs for trees located on City-owned property. Residents may find GeoOttawa a helpful tool to get an idea of where their property lines are located. Link: http://maps.ottawa.ca.

A quick guide on how to use the maps application to determine your lot lines can be found here

For residents looking to plant on private property, Hydro Ottawa has put together a “Tree Planting Advice” document which may be of some use (can be found here). There is an addtional document “planning for planting” (found here) which also provides some guidelines Forestry follows when planning for planting locations .

Please note residents are not required to follow our guidelines when planting on private property; this is just meant to be used as helpful guidelines 

General Information regarding Forestry Services’ Programs

For residents looking to have a tree planted on the City-owned property adjacent to their homes, the City offers a Trees In Trust Program. The City supplies and plants a tree (species selected by the resident) in trust that the resident waters the tree for the first 3 years of its life. More information on this program can be found at: http://ottawa.ca/en/residents/water-and-environment/trees-and-community-forests/trees-trust

Residents may also suggest planting locations in their community for City parks and streets. More information at: http://ottawa.ca/en/residents/water-and-environment/trees-and-community-forests/parks-and-streetscape-tree-planting

Other general information on our planting programs can be found at: http://ottawa.ca/en/residents/water-and-environment/planting

General information regarding the City’s EAB strategy can be found at: http://ottawa.ca/en/residents/water-and-environment/emerald-ash-borer

Concerning Beaverbrook Neighbourhood specifically

The NOW (Neighbourhood Operational Workplan) Program Plans for Beaverbrook: The NOW program (the City’s tree maintenance program) involves inspecting individual City trees by neighbourhood for any pruning or removal work necessary; the program runs on a 7 year cycle. The last time the Beaverbrook trees were inspected as part of this program was in 2009 so they are scheduled for inspection again this year. The work will most likely take place this winter (winter 2016/2017). Forestry will also be inspecting and conducting work on trees within all maintained parks in the Beaverbrook area in spring/summer 2017.

The Woodlot Program Plans for Ward 4: There will be extensive ash tree removals in some of the more natural woodlot areas this winter (Jan-March 2017). As of right now there are four locations on our Woodlot Rehabilitation Program list in Ward 4 (there may be more added as we are still scoping). These locations include Beaverpond Park at 243 Walden Dr, Kimmins Court Park at 250 Walden Dr, the parkland at 1018 Marconi Ave and Jim Malone Park at 400 Goldridge Dr. For the Woodlot Rehabilitation Program more typical forestry equipment (such as feller bunchers and skidders) are used to remove a large volume of ash trees (some dead non-ash species and invasive shrubs such as buckthorn) with the intention of retaining all other non-ash species. Removals take place in the winter to avoid damage to the forest floor. Clean-up of debris along pathways takes place the following spring and planting takes place in the spring and/or the fall. More information regarding the plans for these parks will be provided to the Councillor’s office and to the community association at a later date. Notifications prior to the removals will also be mailed or delivered to residents adjacent to any of the removal areas.

Planting Plans for ward 4
The City continues to replace ash trees removed on City property City wide as part of its lifecycle tree planting programs such as Trees in Trust, full street replacements and the park tree planting programs. Some parks that the City will be planning replacements for in the next year are:  Allenby Park, Beaverpond Park, Ed Hollyer Park, Ernest Smith Park, Fentiman Park, Lismer Park, Ravenscroft Park, Billy Bishop Park, McKinley Park.  Some of the many streets that will be receiving replacement trees in the next year: Balding Cres, Blackdome Cres, Campeau Dr, Edenvale Dr, Evanshen Dr, Flamborough Way, Hemlo Cres, Insmill Cres, Keno Way, Knudson Dr, Macassa Circle, Maricona Way, Robson Court, Scampton Dr, Shirley’s Brook Dr, Tanmount Way, Walden Dr.

Forestry’s next planting season is next fall 2016, a detailed planting list will be provided to the Councillor’s office in late August/early September.