Grande Prairie's Jubilee Park. Photo by Curtis Galbraith.

By Curtis Galbraith

Trees

Good news, bad news on having more urban park space says Tree Canada

Apr 29, 2019 | 10:55 AM

Tree Canada says there is good news and bad news when it comes to having urban park space and more trees.

President Mike Rosen tells Everything GP many Canadians are much more aware of how parks and trees benefit them.

He adds that includes northern cities like Grande Prairie.

“They go, ‘You know, we want more nature in our lives, we want more nature where we walk and where we have recreation and where we play soccer and where we get to work and all that kind of stuff’.”

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Rosen says the bad news is that increased urbanization means more disconnect with nature, meaning people’s lives are not as healthy. He adds another worry is climate change leading to warmer summers and winters. Rosen says that means more freak storms and more pests like mountain pine beetles because winters are warmer.

Rosen adds there are mental and physical health benefits from having trees around.

He points to a study done on two social housing projects in Chicago.

“Same average income and same race and same age distribution of these two public housing complexes. The only difference is that one was heavily treed and one wasn’t, Statistically they proved that in the treed housing complex, there was a statistically much lower incidence of domestic violence, graffiti violence, and attention deficit disorder in children.”

Rosen says municipalities are also using trees to slow down traffic. He adds that works because seeing trees calms people down. Another study found that patients that can look out a window and see trees have shorter stays in the hospital.

He thinks Canada is lucky to have so many open spaces, trees and so much land.
“We should be celebrating that but not just in the way that, you know, these things should just be exploited left, right and center, but that they should be developed in a way that takes the environment in mind and that benefits as many Canadians as possible because the two things can live together, if you just plan it correct(ly).”