Managing the Urban Forest in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia

Residential growth in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia is being driven by population expansion. This is fuelled by a buoyant economy, and immigration from eastern Canada and the Pacific Rim.The traditional source of agricultural land to accommodate municipal expansion on the outskirts of Vancouver became unavailable following a 1972 moratorium on the development of farmland in British Columbia. The effect of this land freeze was to drive new housing onto the largely forested slopes surrounding the Fraser River floodplain. This factor, coupled in the last two decades, with an increasing demand for urban greenspace and housing areas with forest character has prompted many communities and some developers to adopt forest retention programs within, or contiguous to, housing enclaves.This study examined the context of urban forestry as it applies to housing development tree retention. It examines the legal and design processes that encourage tree retention using a large development 'in the City of Port Moody as an example. The study found that the desire for tree retention has not been matched with informed sub-division or housing design, construction implementation, or subsequent forest stand management. The result has been damaged structures and declining urban forest assets.Planned reconciliation of the environmental needs of trees versus the site engineering needs of cost-effective development can improve the implementation success of sustainable treeretention programs. In the long term, neglecting the risk of interface fire, or the need for silvicultural strategies and tree safety programs, will precipitate extensive loss of urban forest resources from natural or manmade causes. This is equally as true of trees on public lands as it is on collectively owned or private and commercial property.Lower Mainland communities must develop comprehensive urban forest programmes. These should emphasize legal, planning, and informational tools, resource potential assessment methods, professional expertise, and public interest in urban forestry. A simple twelve-part model is developed to provide a context in which viable, adequately funded municipal urban forest programmes can be initiated and sustained.