The City of New Westminster is celebrating Phase 1 of their plan to increase the city's tree cover to 27% by 2035. This is the first milestone in that effort with 2300 trees having been planted in the last few years.

Mayor Patrick Johnstone held a press conference at City Hall including Jake Sawatzky, the MP for New Westminster-Burnaby-Maillardville, and Jennifer Whiteside, MLA for New Westminster. The City received substantial funding from the Provincial and Federal Governments' for this project under the 'Covid-19 Resilience and Infrastructure Program' in 2021. It received $1.7M for URBEI through this infrastructure Stream.

Trees confer many benefits as elucidated by the Mayor and guests which also included the Director of Parks and Recreation and a Professor of Urban Forests from the University of British Columbia. Some of the positive benefits trees confer are shade, carbon sequestering, habitat for wildlife, climate resilience and general beauty.

The City has a Tree Planting Master Plan for this decade. There are 6000 more trees to go - to be planted on public lands. (Developers in New West are also required to meet tree planting requirements.)

Citizens have seen lots of evidence of plantings all over the city lately including this plot in front of City Hall, trees around the new Community Centre, trees in all 40 parks, and trees in areas where seniors and people with low income live...ensuring all will benefit from this program.

For those interested in finding out more about the plans, there is an excellent brochure on the City's website. 

Susan Millar, LJI Journalist