ERCA raises concerns over province downgrading tree planting

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Essex Region Conservation Authority is planting 125,000 trees amid concerns tree planting is not a priority for the provincial government.

The reforestation is taking place on over 150 acres of land across the watersheds of the region — on both conservation authority-owned lands and privately owned land.

The program provides seedlings grown from seeds harvested locally so that the genetic material allows the young trees to thrive in this environment, said Tim Byrne, the authority’s chief administrative officer.

“We want to target and we want to exceed the standards put forward by the United Nations for 12 per cent tree cover,” Byrne said, adding the region’s tree cover currently sits in the six to eight per cent range.

“So we fall far short of hitting that United Nations goal. It’s a minimum,” he said. “That’s a minimum considered to have something that’s sustainable.

“Is that all we do, shoot for minimums?,” he asked.

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Byrne said the Ford government’s Bill 229, which amended the Conservation Authorities Act, “is not allowing the conservation authority … to be able to levy municipalities for that program.”

“The province with its realignment of conservation authority objectives has identified that a conservation authority planting trees on private lands is a non-core activity,” Byrne said.

Currently, tree planting is one of many activities paid for through an annual budget, approved by the authority’s board of directors. Directors are appointed councillors from all local municipalities, including Windsor.

Byrne said once the board approves the budget, it is then apportioned to each municipality based on current valuated assessment — basically on population and property values.

Windsor is the largest by population in the region, with a current valuated assessment of just over 49 per cent. The county and Pelee Island hold the remainder.

But with the changes brought by Bill 229 — the government is currently preparing the regulations implementing the changes — the authority will have to put more time into administering the tree-planting program, at an increased cost.

“They’re not saying we can’t do it or shouldn’t be doing it but for us to offer the service, all local municipalities have to enter into memorandums of understanding with us,” he said.

“Our region is one of the least forested in Canada, and having to strike agreements with each municipality to continue to tree plant at this scale could significantly impede progress, creating an additional hurdle to improving water quality, providing habitat for endangered species and reducing soil erosion.”

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And Byrne said although private land owners benefit directly from tree planting, the region as a whole also benefits through an improved natural environment.

Gary Wheeler, spokesperson with the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks, responded to questions in an email, saying Bill 229 “did not include changes that prevent conservation authorities from undertaking tree planting programs within their area of jurisdiction.”

Bill 229 has “not affected the core role Conservation Authorities have to manage their own lands, Wheeler said. Instead, the legislation was introduced to ensure that “conservation authorities are focused on their core mandate.”

Changes in the bill “are focused on improving the governance, oversight and accountability of conservation authorities, while respecting taxpayer dollars by giving municipalities more say over the conservation authority programs and services they pay for.”

jkotsis@postmedia.com

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