The City Celebrates the Planting of 2300 Trees in the Last Few Years

The City of New Westminster is celebrating the planting of 2300 trees in the last few years – a milestone in it's efforts to increase the tree cover in the City to 27% by 2035. 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 – both levels of government have been involved in the funding of the program. Trees confer many benefits as elucidated by the Mayor's guests which also included the Director of Parks and Recreation and a Professor of Urban Forests from UBC. Shade for cooling and carbon sequestering were among the many positive aspects mentioned in the speeches given. 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. For those interested in finding out more about the plans, there is an excellent brochure on the City's website.