Arborists reflect on saving Winnipeg's urban forest on anniversary of 2019 snowstorm

Ask someone in the business of trees in Winnipeg what they remember of the Thanksgiving weekend of 2019 and the answers come like it was yesterday.

"[That] Saturday morning, I remember getting in the car first thing and [I] started driving around. And I phoned my supervisor and I said, 'We're in a lot of trouble,'" Martha Barwinsky recalls instantly.

The City of Winnipegforester had been watching the weather for days leading up to that weekend.

With snow and ice clinging to the trees and a fierce wind blowing, Barwinsky knew the stormunfolding would soon require every arborist she could lay her hands on.

"It was literally all hands on deck," Barwinsky said, remembering the flurry of calls that went out from the city's forestry division.

WATCH | Protecting the trees:

Keeping Winnipeg's tree canopy healthy

3 years ago

Duration 2:53

Two years ago a freak October ice and snow storm nearly shut Winnipeg down. It caused blackouts across swaths of Manitoba and destroyed thousands of trees. On the second anniversary of the big storm, we get an update on the status of the city's urban forest and the efforts to keep Winnipeg's tree canopy healthy.

Nine private contracting companies, every available city forestry crew and dozens of arborists from the cities of Calgary, Regina, Saskatoon and Toronto would eventually be thrown into the stricken urban forest.

That's when Carla Antonation got the call she already knew was coming.

She and her husband, Jesse, ownTrilogyTreeServices. Antonation was coming back from a client's property when the enormity of the storm struck.

"I couldn't believe how fast it had progressed and how many trees were starting to bend," Antonation said.

"[I remember] thinking, 'Oh, this is bad.'"

While the city needed help with trees on public property, Trilogy's phone wasalso blowingup with calls from its own clients.

And the company's crews out on the street were deluged by requests from people running out of their homes asking for assistance.

Many people had becomeafraidof the trees falling, Antonation said, but there was so much work the company's crews couldn't help everyone.

"[It was] definitely hard for our crews to have to say, 'No, I'm sorry.I can't do that for you right now,'" she said.

In the aftermath, more than 30,000 city-owned trees and countless more on private property were damaged or downed, leaving the City ofWinnipeg with a $10-million cleanup bill and a cost of 10times that for Manitoba Hydro to repair fallen power lines.

Tree canopy at risk

Both city and commercial arborists agree the storm caused ongoing stress to Winnipeg's trees but other factorsare killing the city's forest, too.

Dutch elm disease continues todevastate.A drought is sucking morelife out of the trees. And the fluctuating weather cycles brought by climate change is another factor.

Meanwhile, the city is removing thousands of diseased trees and replanting only a fraction of them.

"Last year, in 2020, our replacement ratio was 20 per cent. So we only replace 20 per cent of the trees that we remove," Barwinsky said.

The city tagged close to 8,000 trees for removal.

Another concernon private property is the replacementtreesaren't always the right species.

"One of the problems we see is a large tree will come down, but it's going to be replaced with just a small ornamental [one]," Antonation said.

If a big shade tree is taken down, Antonation said,it should be replaced with another large tree.

That's partly because those taller specieshelp keep the heat lower in urban locations already filled with concrete and buildings, as temperatures risebecause of climate change.

Reversing the trend

But efforts are underway to save Winnipeg's tree canopy.

Early next year, the citywill release a draft of its urban forestry strategy and recommend a huge step:a tree protection bylaw that could give the city some authority over all Winnipeg'strees, including those on private property.

"There are a lot more concerns now with the protection of trees on private properties due to development, construction and a wide variety of activities and we know that the majority of our urban forest is on private property," Barwinsky said.

The bylaw could allow the city to require replacements for trees that are taken down on private property.

And last year, the citylaunched the One Million Tree Challenge campaign, which has had some early success attracting corporate backing and getting out basic information about what species to plant and where to get them.

So far, the campaign has seen 16,000 trees planted across the city. That's anumber project co-ordinatorKamila Koniecznyadmits is dwarfed by the million-tree goal, but she urges residents to take a broaderview.

"This is really a long-term initiative and we are really hoping to elevate it every year and increase our projections and our numbers every year,"Konieczny said.

But the cumulative stress onWinnipeg's urban forest is too great for the city to take on alone.

"With everything going on,from climate change to insects and disease and development, it's really our turn to step up," Koniecznysaid.

"Ifwe don't do something soon, there may be a time when we don't have this have beautiful urban canopy."