Tomorrow Foundation for a Sustainable Future

The Private Urban Forest Pop Up Exhibition!

Post author By Elizabeth Cytko
Post date September 15, 2021

A tree tag on a boulevard tree

Hello neighbour!

You might have noticed something special appearing on the Queen Alexandra boulevard trees – tree tags!

Trees are part of our everyday life which we often walk past and do not think too much about.

This exhibition intends to have you pause and consider the value of trees. It is also meant to help educate you about some of the challenges our boulevard trees are up against.

You might have noticed that there are a few repeat panels, so you don’t need to find each one or worry about missing out!

This exhibition is part of the Private Urban Forest project by the Tomorrow Foundation for a Sustainable Future. The exhibition is our way to say thank you for allowing us into your backyards to measure trees.

If you are not in Queen Alexandra, but would like to check out the tree tags, I suggest starting your journey at the Queen Alexandra Park 10722 73 Ave NW, Edmonton.

Feel free to use our hashtag #yegprivateforest or tag us on Twitter @tomorrowfdn

If you would like your trees measured if you are in the Queen Alexandra neighbourhood or to learn more about the project, reach out to us at [email protected]…

Tags community science, Edmonton, event, exhibition, private urban forest, queen alexandra, update

Events Private Urban Forest Projects

Tree Measuring Event: September 11

Post author By Elizabeth Cytko
Post date September 1, 2021

Are you passionate about trees?

Are you curious about the Private Urban Forest?

Come join us this Saturday to learn how to measure trees and collect data!
Feel free to bring a friend!

Location: Queen Alex Park 10722 73 Ave NW

Time: 2 pm – 5 pm

Bring: Water bottle, comfortable shoes, clothes you can work in.

When: Saturday, September 11

Covid precautions: Mask use is at your discretion. This event takes place outside.

Let us know you are coming by emailing [email protected]…

Tags community science, event, past, private urban forest, volunteer

Private Urban Forest Projects trees

Adventures in Tree Count Training – The Private Urban Forest

Post author By Elizabeth Cytko
Post date August 28, 2021

On a stormy Edmonton morning in August, we had our first training session for tree count volunteers! We arranged to meet in Queen Alex park at 10am and just at the stroke of 10, the heavens opened as a massive storm traveled overhead. We sheltered under the bandstand and watched as our hardy volunteers arrived – walking through the rain, thunder and lightning. We are so lucky to have such dedicated volunteers!

As we waited out the storm, our resident tree expert Barbara was able to give us all some initial training and tips on identifying and measuring trees; showing us how to use the DBH tape, and the basics of leaf identification. She also gave a brief overview of the data collection table and how to map the tree locations.

Once the storm had passed (after an hours’ wait!) we were able to enjoy some sunshine and put what we had learned into practice, identifying and measuring the trees in the park. We identified white and blue spruce, linden, elm, amongst many others! We did not have time to measure trees in the pilot area but now we have some trained volunteers, we can’t wait to get out there and finish gathering data on Edmonton’s Private Urban Forest!

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Tags community science, private urban forest, stories, update

Private Urban Forest

Our first day of Tree Measuring! – The Private Urban Forest

Post author By Elizabeth Cytko
Post date July 21, 2021

Elizabeth and Sandra in one of the Private Urban Forests in Queen Alexandra

Elizabeth and Sandra completed our first official day of Private Urban Forest tree measuring on Sunday.
What an exciting day! It was so great to see how many people are interested in our project, and knowing more about the trees on their property. Our day was much longer than anticipated mostly due to the sheer number of trees there were to measure (a great problem to have!) We learned so much!

It was a smoky day but in total we measured 100 trees on 5 properties – an average of 20 trees per property, with a couple of properties coming in at 25 trees each! We did find that many of the trees were pretty complicated to measure diameter – challenging our training from our resident tree expert Barbara. For example, we will be checking in with Barbara on how to accurately measure the diameter of trees like this:

Bush or tree? Sometime’s it’s not that easy to distinguish!

Multiple trunks mean more math!

Our tree identifying skills noticeably developed over the course of the day, but we also relied upon our trusty app to help where we weren’t quite sure. Some of the more common trees we spotted were Manitoba Maple, Spruce, Cedar, and Ash – not to mention some good old crab apple trees.

We still have 3 properties to go back to as time ran out. We are hoping to schedule these soon; along with the other properties on our list!

We can’t wait to start inputting the data into our tree recording software so we can start to visualise all the amazing benefits these trees are offering their owners. The last few weeks of intense heat, and then thick smoke have really made us value our private urban forest even more.

We look forward to providing you with further updates!…

Carbon-Negative Backyard Housing Energy Transition Strategy 2021 Events Webinars

July 14 Webinar – Carbon Negative, Net-Zero Backyard Houses – A Made-in-Edmonton Climate Solution

Post author By Conrad
Post date June 16, 2021

Over 90% of Edmonton’s greenhouse gas emissions come from three big sources: buildings, energy sources, and transportation. Backyard houses, (or, “garage suites”) have the potential to help solve all three problems at once!

Edmonton-based architect Eugene Dening and builder William Keith have designed and built an innovative backyard house that is a step closer to the holy grail: the carbon-negative, net-zero backyard house. Attend this webinar to learn more about this type of house, how it can be a powerful climate solution, and the innovations that Eugene and Keith have implemented in this project.

This free webinar is happening on July 14, 2021, at 7pm.

Tags past

Events Private Urban Forest trees Webinars

July 6 – Join Us To Discuss The Private Urban Forest

Post author By Conrad
Post date June 15, 2021

Join us for our Summer 2021 Community Science Project!

Project Description

Have you ever pondered how the trees on your property benefit you?

Or what kind of trees are growing on your property?

Have you ever considered how much of our urban forest resides on private property?

We at Tomorrow Foundation are asking these questions, and more!

This summer we are piloting a project in the Queen Alexandra Neighbourhood where we want to gather information about the trees in your yard! This project has the potential to grow into other neighbourhoods in the coming years.

Why is it important to gather this information?

A growing city impacts the trees of our public land (public urban forest) and private land (private urban forest.) By gathering a baseline of information now, we can better understand how these changes will affect us in the future!

The City of Edmonton has a goal to plant 2 million trees to help combat climate change. Getting information about private trees will allow us to advise the city as to the best places to plant them!

Much of our urban forest is on private property. In order to create accurate assessments to meet Edmontons climate goals we need to know what we have!

We need you!

Here are ways you can help make our project a success!

If you are in the Queen Alexandra Neighbourhood please give us permission to enter your property so we can measure your trees.
You can measure your own trees and send us the information.
Join our volunteer team and help us measure!

What information are we gathering and why?

In order to get accurate results we are collecting this information.

Tree species – Each species uniquely interacts with its environment.
Circumference of the trunk and Height of tree – A sign of age and overall vigour.
Dead branches – A sign of the tree’s health.
Exposure to sunlight – A sign of the growing conditions of the tree.
Distance to the house – An indicator of potential home energy savings.

Benefits to you

You can get a personalized report about what services the trees provide for you (e.g. energy savings, reduction of air pollution)
This data will be added to a larger report about the Queen Alexandra neighbourhood
You could gain a free sapling!

Can I opt out?

Of course! This is volunteer only.…

Tags past

Energy Transition Strategy 2021 Events Green Transportation Webinars

June 22 Webinar – A Vision for Spoke-tactular Bike Share

Post author By Conrad
Post date June 14, 2021

A free, public talk about implementing a public bike share system in Edmonton

University of Alberta School of Urban and Regional Planning Students will present research on best practices for bike share systems and discuss their findings for implementing a public bike share system in Edmonton. This is based on a studio project guided by Paths for People and the Tomorrow Foundation.

Tuesday, June 22

7-8pm

Zoom

It’s free.

Register Here.

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Energy Transition Strategy 2021

Edmonton’s Big Climate Plan – Act Now

Post author By Conrad
Post date April 10, 2021

"Edmonton Summer Cityscape" by IQRemix is licensed under CC BY 2.0

19 months after council declared a climate emergency, admin is putting forth the final version of Edmonton’s climate action plan. They’re doing it the day after tomorrow! (Yes, I’m late on this.)

The Plan

The plan is called the Revised Community Energy Transition Strategy (it’s here, all 175 pages of it). And here’s the thing: it’s good. It’s really good.

It organizes our opportunities to reduce CO2 into four big “pathways”:
1. Renewable and Resilient Energy Transition (greening our electricity and heating)
2. Emissions Neutral Buildings (insulation and good windows)
3. Low Carbon City and Transportation (dense urban form, reducing car trips and increasing bike/walk/transit trips)
4. Carbon Capture and Nature Based Solutions

The strategy takes a clear-eyed gaze into the challenges and opportunities that we face, and proposes real solutions. Here are some thoughts:

- The way that our municipalities are set up in Canada, cities have the least amount of money (they receive only about 8% of every tax dollar).
- Therefore, we will need dollars from the provincial and federal governments to move the plan along.
- Our biggest lever, then, is #3 above: Low Carbon City and Transportation. That’s because Edmonton has a large degree of control over zoning and the allocation of our street space.
- For more details, I tweeted about the plan last Sunday.

Help Us Take Action

So, this plan goes to council on Monday. You can make a difference in two ways:

Email your councillor. (see below)
Speak to council on Monday, April 12. (virtually)
- The report will go to Executive Committee at 9:30am. Unfortunately, you can’t know exactly when you’ll be called upon. However, if you are registered and aren’t available when your turn comes up, there’s no downside (so if you can, you should try and speak!).
- Presentations to council are very powerful. This is your most impactful action.
- To register to speak, email [email protected] or (better) call them on Monday morning (780-496-8178). They are very accommodating, and they will give you instructions on addressing council.

Emailing Your Councillor (type your postal code below and add your own personal message)

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Energy Transition Strategy 2021

Daily Car Trips in Edmonton Have Peaked (if We’re Serious About Climate Change)

Post author By Conrad
Post date February 9, 2021

Transportation is responsible for about one third of greenhouse gas emissions in Edmonton¹. 78% of trips are taken in SUVs (and cars)². And Edmonton needs to reduce its transportation emissions by about 90% to reach its goals. The city has two main strategies:

Strategy #1: Increase the number of bus/bike/walk trips from about 22% to 50% of all trips by 2040³.
Strategy #2: Convert the other 50% of trips to electric cars, powered by a green electricity grid (the City doesn’t mention a timeline).

50% of trips by bus/bike/walk, the other 50% by electric car. The concept is simple, and we have all the tools, but as any city watcher will tell you, the politics around transportation in Edmonton are…complicated.

How big is the challenge of making 50% of trips climate-friendly in the next 19 years?

Edmonton residents made 2.45 million SUV/car trips per weekday in 2015 (source)
We made another roughly 700,000 walk/bike/transit trips per weekday.
To achieve our climate goals:
- SUV/car trips need to remain the same from now on. They’ve peaked!
- All of the new growth in weekday trips, about 1.6 million new trips, needs to be in walk, bike, or transit trips ().

If we want to meet our climate goals, this transformation of how we move around has to happen in the next 19 years. Questions abound. How do we make non-car modes more desirable? And what about the other side of the coin, dare we make car trips ever so slightly less desirable? If future posts, we will explore both questions. And we’ll talk about electric cars too. They can help, but maybe not as much as we think.

References

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#Yes2ClimateYEG Energy Transition Strategy 2021

Edmonton Needs to Cut Emissions by 12% per year until 2030

Post author By Conrad
Post date February 3, 2021

If we are to meet our climate obligations, it’s going to take a big effort. What exactly is the scale of the problem? Here are some numbers:

Edmonton’s emissions in 2019 were 17 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent, that’s 46,575 tonnes per day (more data here).
Our goal is to reduce that to roughly 5.4 million tonnes by 2030, nine short years from now.
So, we need to cut our greenhouse gas emissions by 12% each and every year for the next nine years.

In what areas can we reduce our emissions?

The above figure represents where Edmonton could take effective climate action (as reported by the city here). If we fully greened our energy system (where we get our heat and electricity), that would solve 36% of the problem. Transportation is next at 28%, then buildings at 19%. We’ll worry about the last category at a later time.

Edmonton needs to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions 12% every year until 2030. Our focus areas should be transportation, buildings, and our heat and electricity. At a very high level, it would look something like this:

Transportation: rapidly convert all cars and SUVs to electric, while more than doubling the share of transit, walk and bike trips.
Buildings: Perform as many Deep Energy Retrofits on houses and buildings as possible, as fast as possible. We need to be retrofitting 10,000+ houses every year.
Energy Systems: rapid and deep decarbonization to our electricity and heating systems. This means solar and wind, integration with BC’s electricity grid (they have lots of hydro), geothermal, biomass energy, and anything else we can think of.

Some of the changes need to be driven at the provincial and federal levels, working in tandem. However, Edmonton has many actions that it can take, starting right now, that will bring us closer to our goals. Over the next posts, we will take a closer look at each of the areas above, transportation, buildings, and energy systems, and examine what Edmonton can do, and when, to respond to the climate emergency.

Our first stop: Transportation.…