Impact

This is a map dedicated to showing where Sustainable Waterloo Region has organized the planting of trees via the Microforest program. Check out these sites any time!

Ecological value of trees

  • Release oxygen through photosynthesis
  •  Provide moisture and help local and regional climates to cool
  • Trees also store water (hydrological cycle)
  • Improve soil conditions so other plants can grow well around them
  • Store and cycle nutrients to keep an ecosystem healthy
  • Provide habitat for small creatures and insects
  • Contribute to increased biodiversity
  • Capture carbon from the atmosphere to mitigate climate change

Social and economic benefits

  • Trees act as noise buffering in our neighbourhoods
  • Provide cooling, shade and wind-reducing effects
  • Remove air pollutants so we live healthier
  • Improve community and neighbourhood aesthetics
  • Enhance psychological well-being
  • Improve flood areas and reduce the effects of stormwater runoff
  • They’re also great places for learning and provide educational opportunities for students young and old!

Trees and Climate Change 

Trees provide benefits for both climate change mitigation and adaptation to the effects of climate change. Mitigation is the removal or prevention of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. Adaptation is the changes to behaviour, systems or features that help us to live with the effects of climate change. 

  • Mitigation: Depending on their age, trees can either capture or store carbon. Younger trees capture carbon from the atmosphere as they grow, while older trees store it. Thanks guys!
  • Adaptation: Trees provide necessary shade, as well as surface and air temperature cooling effects, to cope with increasingly hot and dry summers brought about by climate change. These benefits are most keenly felt in dense urban areas, where more frequent and intense flooding can cause erosion and concrete can trap heat.

Carbon Sequestration

We calculate the impact of this project using the cumulative average carbon sequestration. Carbon sequestration is modeled as a function of five factors: succession stage, vegetation type (species), % tree canopy cover, temperature (high and low variability), and soil carbon to nitrogen ratio (Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, 2013). The average Canadian tree, under moderate soil conditions and assuming an 80-year maturity, in an urban environment sequesters about 200 kg C over an 80 year period, or 2.5kg carbon per year (Tree Canada, 2008).

Year Planted # of Sites # of Trees Carbon Sequestered = # of trees x 2.5 kg
2021 2 170 425 kg/year
2022 6 700 1750 kg/year
2023 12 946 2,365 kg/year
TOTAL:   1,816 trees planted Cumulative average of 4,540 kg/year