Requiem for an elm

Of the three million trees in Winnipeg’s urban forest, about 300,000 are in the City of Winnipeg’s public tree inventory, which the 2021 State of the Urban Forest report says is largely street trees but also planted park trees.

According to the Trees Please Winnipeg coalition’s analysis, 26,000 trees in the public tree inventory were removed between 2016-2021.

Even worse, in 2020, only 19 per cent of trees that were removed were replaced. And with the backlog, there are as many as 40,600 vacant planting sites around the city.

Winnipegger Ariel Gordon recently had her 110-year-old elm tree marked for removal. Her piece reflects on the importance of trees in communities and as infrastructure.

To read more of this story first reported by the Winnipeg Free Press, click here.

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