Quebec sees life in green. By 2029, the national capital aims to plant 130,000 trees on its territory so that more than a third of its urban area is devoted to the canopy. On Friday, she launched an appeal to the trees to encourage the population to plant the seeds of a greener city.
Since 2021, Quebec has planted just over 23,000 trees on its territory. More than 100,000 others are therefore missing to sow to fulfill the vision of the tree which must, in the next decade, bring forest cover to 35% of its urbanized territory, an increase of 4% compared to the actual hour. By way of comparison, the canopy covers a quarter of Montreal’s territory.
The City admits it: it won’t be able to do it alone.
“There are 75% of the lands of the city of Quebec which do not belong to the City of Quebec, underlined the councilor Marie-Josée Asselin, responsible for the environmental files at the executive. The contribution of the community is essential to achieve our objectives. »
To encourage citizen participation in the greening of the city, Quebec announced on Friday the creation of a one-stop shop where businesses, industries and owners of all kinds can go before planting.
“The Canopée collective will offer a real ‘all-inclusive’ plan for planting trees”, promises the City. Anyone who wants to sow will be able to do so thanks to this window, which has funding of nearly $500,000. In all, the collective hopes to deploy 2,000 trees and 250 shrubs in 2023 – eight times more than the 285 trees planted in 2022 thanks to the greening program for land that does not belong to the City.
“We want to pick up the pace,” says the advisor. For the past few years, the City has been increasing its efforts to facilitate the increase of the canopy on private land.
The free distribution of trees has made it possible to dispose of 8,000 over the past two years. The City of Quebec also proposes to plant, at its expense, trees along the edges of private land. The capital offers a range of species to its population, in addition to ensuring the maintenance of these trees and their replacement, if ever the mower were to cut them down.
75% of the land in the city of Quebec does not belong to the city of Quebec. The contribution of the community is essential to achieve our objectives.
This program is producing good results: half of the 23,000 trees planted since 2021 come from it. Owners who wish to participate simply call the City to have employees come and sow trees at the indicated locations. Since the beginning of the year, nearly 2,100 people have taken advantage of it.
The City is the subject of much criticism because of the sometimes hundred-year-old trees it sacrifices to make way for the tramway. The administration of Bruno Marchand, however, undertakes to plant 30,000 in the neighborhoods bordering the route, including 5,000 along the route.
Friday, the Town Hall announced its desire to “percolate the benefits of the tramway” in more sectors. It is the lower town and its most concrete neighborhoods that will benefit from this: Saint-Sauveur, Vanier, Lairet and Charlesbourg should therefore see their canopy increase over the next few years.
“Expectations have never been so high, our ambitions too,” said Marie-Josée Asselin, recalling COP15, which is taking place 250 km upstream from Highway 20. It remains to be seen whether the population of Quebec will embark on the greening campaign undertaken by the municipal administration.
The City believes in it. “The more initiatives we see, the more requests there will be,” hopes the adviser. There will be a ripple effect to create beauty. »