"Vancouver has the vision to be the greenest city in the world by 2020. To get there, we’ve defined 10 long-term goals, each associated with a 2020-target. After talking citizens and stakeholders, we’ve created a draft action plan to meet our proposed targets." That is how begin each short video presenting these 10 targets (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yNV...), which are :

1.Green economy

2.Climate leadership

3.Green buildings

4.Green transportation

5.Zero waste

6.Access to nature

7.Lighter footprint

8.Clean water

9.Clean air

10.Local food

During the next weeks, I will try to write about almost all these targets. If you can’t wait to know more about it, here the official website of the project : http://www.talkgreenvancouver.ca/

Let’s begin with the target n°6, access to nature. This target consists mostly in planting trees in the city to make grow the urban forests. I met Dr John Innes, Dean of Forestry and the Forest Renewal British Columbia Chair of Forest Management at UBC (University of British Columbia), so that he talks to me about the urban forests in Vancouver...

After two months in Helsinki where nature was very close to the city, I noticed that it was not the case in Québec. In the east of Canada, we can see gigantic forests 20mn away from the cities, but there is no urban forest. "Here, [in the city] we have trees. In Scandinavia, they have urban forests" admitted Luc Bouthilier, professor in forest policy at Laval University. "It is a culture that the north american don’t have". Yet, in Vancouver, the many green spaces look like urban forests...

Indeed, there are many parks in Vancouver, among which Stanley Park, more than 10% larger than New York City’s Central Park (404.9 hectares) and also many small green spaces. But, in inhabitants’ minds, they are no urban forests because no tree are cut down, the trees are not used. That’s why the facultry of forestry of the UBC works with the city to try to change this idea because they think forestry is growing trees, not cutting them down.

There has been parks in cities for a very long time but the so-called "urban forests" as a concept has been existing for about 10 years. Street trees are really important because they are the first and sometimes the only contact with nature in cities. People underestimate how important they are. They provide :
 shade in the summer ;
 dust reduction ;
 noise reduction ;
 absorption of CO² and releasing of oxygen, so they enhance the quality of the air ;
 habitat for wildlife ;
 they moderate storm flow...

Greenery is already very present in residential neighbourhoods.

Vancouver will plant new trees on spare lands and will create a few parks and gardens among the new districts on the east part of Vancouver, in False Creek.

If Dr Innes estimates that the management of this project could be improved (especially in the choice of the tree species), the city is working with profesors from the faculty of forestry of UBC, and from other groups of UBC to enhance these points. So we can fairly think that the management will be better soon.

The management of urban forests is actually not that simple, there are many problems :
 vandalism ;
 lack of space ;
 the need of small trees ;
 the leaves block the drains ;
 the need of conifers and citrus trees for the shade ;
 the need of an expertise to manage the trees (diseases...) ;
 the need of a very good system to struggle against diseases in ports (often imported from Asia to Vancouver), and keeping these diseases under control can be difficult ;
 the need to understand how trees and buildings interact because the roots damage the foundations and hides the light when the trees are planted too close of the buildings (it even causes some economical problems, some houses lose some of their value).

Eventually, when I asked Dr Innes if the inhabitants of Vancouver have a special sensitivity to nature, he estimated that if, for people from all British Columbia, nature is an economic ressource, it is a mindset for people living in Vancouver. They spend a lot of time outside, so there is an awareness of the environment, they are aware of the dangers of the climate change because they see nature and understand the damages that can be caused. For example, white plastic bags are not distributed in Vancouver, Greenpeace has been founded in Vancouver... Unfortunately, for now, this frame of mind is less ingrained in the mind of new immigrants from Hong Kong.

See you soon, Be green, Ben