Ottawa is no exception.<\/p>\n
The 2017 tree canopy assessment found that every $10,000 drop in neighbourhood median income correlated with a four per cent decline in tree cover, according to last week’s memo to council\u00a0from climate change and resiliency services director Nichole Hoover-Bienasz and parks maintenance and forestry services director Andrea Lanthier-Seymour.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the benefits of tree cover\u00a0include cooler temperatures and improved health outcomes.<\/p>\n
Through the tree equity analysis, each neighbourhood was assigned a\u00a0number between 0 and 100 that’s calculated by comparing the tree canopy cover to demographic, health and socioeconomic data about its residents.<\/p>\n
A low score shows there aren’t enough trees to meet residents’ needs.<\/p>\n
Priority and action\u00a0neighbourhoods<\/p>\n
Council directed staff to take on the analysis so the most inequitable neighbourhoods could be identified and supported, according to the memo.<\/p>\n
The eight “priority” neighbourhoods are spread out across the city,\u00a0with Somerset and Alta Vista ward each hosting two, according to last week’s memo.\u00a0Of those eight, four are “short-term action areas,” meaning staff plan to start tree planting in 2026 and 2027.<\/p>\n
Carr said she wasn’t surprised that two of the short-term action areas fell in her ward.<\/p>\n
“Neither area has had any sort of consistent effort of having any sort of tree coverage whatsoever,” she said,\u00a0noting that one includes a lot of industrial space where landscaping isn’t top of mind.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/marty-carr.jpg\")
Alta Vista Coun. Marty Carr said storms, disease and development have left her ward without sufficient tree canopy coverage. ‘Now we’ll have to really undertake concerted efforts to ensure that we have sufficient tree canopy cover in all neighbourhoods,’ she said. (Isabel Harder\/CBC)<\/p>\n
While there are many\u00a0groups planting trees in Alta Vista, Carr said that work doesn’t usually happen in those two communities, which\u00a0rank low on the neighbourhood equity index.<\/p>\n
“We don’t have a lot of community associations because the folks in those neighbourhoods have other other things to worry about,” she said.<\/p>\n
“That’s why the tree equity report is so important, because not every community can focus on this.”<\/p>\n
Overall canopy coverage<\/p>\n
City staff will now work with the local councillors, community groups, social services and residents in the eight priority areas so that trees go where they are “most wanted and needed,” the memo explained.<\/p>\n
That neighbourhood-level work\u00a0is critical, said Paul Johanis, chair of the Greenspace Alliance of Canada’s Capital.<\/p>\n
“It’s really access or proximity to the trees very locally that provides direct benefits, health benefits,” he said. “So understanding and measuring what’s happening at that level is equally as important.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/paul-johanis-chair-greenspace-alliance-of-canada-s-capital-june-14-2022.jpg\")
‘In Somerset ward, can you really get [coverage] to 40 [per cent]? Maybe, I don’t know. But you should be working very hard to move it up from 14 [per cent] to something better,” said\u00a0Paul Johanis, chair of the Greenspace Alliance of Canada’s Capital. (Francis Ferland\/CBC)<\/p>\n
![\"Destroyed](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/pinhey-forest-destroyed-red-pines-derecho-damage-aug-29-2022.jpg\")
Snapped and uprooted trees in Pinhey Forest on Aug. 29, 2022, more than three months after the devastating derecho windstorm on May 21, 2022. (Alexander Behne\/CBC)<\/p>\n