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April
1997
ARBOR
WEEK IN HAMILTON
Dr. Joseph Minor
The Hamilton Spectator
April
25 to May 4 is Arbor Week, the time of year when regional
councillors emerge to plant a tree for the camera. But after
the tree is planted, do the councillors follow through on
their Arbor Week effort? Do they make sure the tree is properly
cared for and not cut down? Only if the tree is not cut
down will it absorb carbon dioxide, produce oxygen, filter
air pollution, reduce noise pollution, and prevent soil
erosion.
What
the councillors will not mention during Arbor Week is that
after the upcoming November election they intend to spend
$124.8 million regional tax dollars to cut down thousands
of trees to make way for the North-South Red Hill Creek
Expressway. The co uncillors have said that this is no problem,
because they will plant two trees for every one that is
cut. So just how many trees is that?
Regional
council paid a consultant to write a "Tree Preservation
Plan" in 1989. It does not calculate how many trees will
be cut down, but it does mention that trees will continue
to die back along the Expressway route even after construction
is finished . At an open house on March 6th 1996, regional
staff were asked how many trees would be cut down. The response
was that not only wasn't the number known, there were no
plans to determine the number either. As a result, one crucial
fact that the $1.2 mi llion dollars worth of "mitigation
consultants" currently working on the expressway will not
find out is how many trees will be lost.
As
a public service, many volunteers have gathered the data
necessary to estimate the number of trees to be cut down.
The first number needed is an estimate of the density of
trees. Grade 12 students in the Integrated Environmental
Studies Program at Or chard Park Secondary School did the
field work to obtain the number of trees per hectare. The
students used a survey method known as point quarter sampling
in four wooded areas in the Red Hill Valley along the Expressway
route. They surveyed both unders tory trees (trees 2.5m
to 10m tall) and canopy trees (trees over 10m tall). Their
results indicate an average tree density of 880 understory
and 630 canopy trees per hectare in the wooded areas of
the valley.
Next,
I used maps of wooded areas in the valley (from the "Biological
Inventory of the Red Hill Valley") and the planned expressway
route (from the "Red Hill Creek Expressway Proposed Assessment
Process") to estimate the number of hectares of wooded area
to be cleared. I assumed that the cleared corridor would
be 79m wide and that the area within the interchanges would
be cleared. These assumptions result in a conservative estimate
of the cleared area for two reasons. First, I took the minimal
outline o f the ramps of the interchanges, although a larger
area will likely be cleared for construction. Second, 79m
is probably an underestimate of the width of the corridor
to be cleared. The figure of 79m is taken from the width
of the cleared area of the fou r lane East-West Expressway
at Upper Ottawa Street. Since the region intends to clear
a right of way for six lanes through the Red Hill valley,
the cleared corridor is likely to be more than 79m wide.
I reproduced the Expressway map at a scale equal to the
wooded areas map (1:10,000), and overlaid the two maps.
By transferring the features of both maps onto a single,
1:10,000 map, I determined that the wooded area to be cleared
for the expressway is 31 hectares.
By
multiplying the area by the tree density, it is estimated
that 47,000 trees (27,000 understory and 20,000 canopy trees)
will be cleared for the expressway. There is no doubt that
this estimate could be improved with more data, but for
a volunteer effo rt it is a good first estimate. And until
the consultants do some work, the figure of 47,000 trees
to be killed for the expressway is the best figure available.
In
order to keep their promise, the councillors need to plant
94,000 trees. If every councillor planted a tree every day
of Arbor Week, they would finish ... actually they would
all die before even coming close. So regional staff will
do the work? No, regional government doesn't plant trees,
it only orders their destruction. Regional staff have indicated
that it will be responsibility of the city of Hamilton to
both plant the trees and cover the cost of the planting.
Last year, the Hamilton forestry department planted 500
trees and charged $95 per tree to do it. At this rate, it
would take 188 years and $8.9 million city tax dollars to
do the job. While you will probably feel the tax pinch immediately,
the councillors won't be keeping their promise to plant
the trees in your lifetime.
Why
all of the fuss over a few thousand trees? For starters,
we badly need the air filtration of those trees in Hamilton.
Air pollution is quite literally killing Hamiltonians. The
Ministry of the Environment estimates that just one component
of air po llution, PM-10, kills 20-25 people in the Hamilton-Wentworth
region every year. The dominant source of PM-10 pollution
is vehicle traffic (engine exhaust, road dust, and tire
dust). Currently there is a large volume of truck traffic
that bypasses Hamilton on the 403 and QEW. If the North-South
Expressway is built, thousands of trucks will detour through
the middle of both Hamilton Mountain and East Hamilton.
And just to make sure we get a good lung full of PM-10,
council plans to cut 47,000 trees that could help mitigate
the new pollution source.
As
we enter Arbor Week, we need to remember that what the councillors
are planning is far worse than a clear-cut. Usually when
clear-cutting is done on public lands, the party doing the
cutting is required to replant the cleared area. In the
case of the Expressway, the plan is to cover the cut area
with pavement to ensure nothing ever grows there again.
If the councillors are serious about Arbor Week, one simple
act could save 47,000 trees. Take the budget axe to the
North-South Red Hill Creek Express way and save both trees
and $124.8 million regional tax dollars.
Dr.Joseph
Minor has a BSc and PhD in Biology and recently completed
a three year postdoctoral study in resource management at
McMaster University.
Copies
of data and calculations can be requested by contacting
Friends of Red Hill Valley at 381-0240.
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