July 2006 City Documents

A few documents from the Parks and Forestry Committee Agenda for July 6, 2006.

Brick Works Site Remediation. Before the city can hand off the site to Evergreen, they determined that there is a little bit of cleanup to be done. It will cost the city $840,000 to remove a variety of toxic substances from the buildings and some from underground deposits.

Emerald Ash Borer Situation. They are on their way to Toronto. Unfortunately this invading beetle is marching it's way inexorably through southern Ontario despite efforts by the CFIA to stop it. Staff are recommending the city set aside $37 million, not to control the beetle but to cover the cost of cutting down the soon to be dead trees and chipping them. This is a serious situation. If you walk down a typical Toronto street, approximately 1/3 of the trees planted in boxes are ash trees.

Street Tree Strategy. This report discusses methods to improve and expand Toronto's urban forest. Currently trees cover about 20% of the city. If we do nothing this will likely decrease. Toronto's goal is to increase cover to about 33%. It also discusses the impact on the aforementioned EAB situation.