Stanley Park was the first of many urban parks that helped preserve the urban forests that we prize today.
London”, “Green Here” and “SOVERDI” proclaiming the value of trees and bringing pockets of urban forest excellence into communities across the country. Canadian municipalities, universities and citizen groups continue to do very creative things in urban forest management, with many approaches borrowed from the United States and the European community. The Starting Point: Urban Parks
The creation of a national, urban park system figured
early in the thought process of the young Canada. The need to provide recreational opportunities to those living in the burgeoning urban areas coincided closely with the industrial revolution where society was confronting a new reality — the arrival of leisure time. Stanley Park was founded in Vancouver in 1886 on land
owned by the federal government. The 405 hectare forest- ed park has a fascinating history of park use, logging and natural storm activity. High Park (Toronto, established 1873) had its origins in
a gift from the estate of John George Howard, the city of Toronto’s first surveyor and engineer. The park is a mixture of exotic trees, cultural and educational facilities, gardens, playgrounds and a small zoo. Recently, prescribed burning has been used to restore the unique black oak savannah that comprises a large part of the park; not a simple task in the heart of the country’s largest city. Mount Royal Park in Montreal was created in 1876,
scaled down from a design by Frederick Olmstead, the pre-eminent American landscape architect who had creat- ed the plans for Central Park in New York many years before. Today it is a focal point of the city. An interesting history was the creation of the Battle-
fields Park better known as the “Plains of Abraham” in 1907 in Québec City. Timed to coincide with the 300th anniversary of the city, the 98-hectare park recognizes the battles which changed Canada’s regime and result- ing character from French to British. The park plan was completed by F.G. Todd, an American landscape architect
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and disciple of Olmstead. Todd later went on to create plans for other Canadi-
an parks including Bowring Park in St. John’s, N.L. in 1914 and Point Pleasant Park, Halifax’s 75 hectare trea- sure which was created in 1866. Hurricane Juan in 2006 dramatically changed the character of the once-closed canopy and intact forest. Regional Urban Forest History
There is little doubt that Ontario has been a Canadian
leader in urban forests, partly due to its urbanized charac- ter, the 1960s Dutch elm disease crisis, individual achieve- ments and university support. Ontario planted American elm, silver and sugar maples along city streets in the late 1800s. The onslaught of DED changed Ontario cities and towns
dramatically. Erik Jorgensen arrived from Denmark as a forest pathologist for the federal government and joined the University of Toronto in 1959, beginning a concerted program to study and combat DED. He established the Shade Tree Research laboratory and in 1964 reached out to the community with the establishment in 1969 of the Ontario Shade Tree Council. This led to the teaching of the first urban forestry course
in Canada and the eventual development of Lignasan and root flare injections to treat DED. Jorgensen defined the term “urban forestry”. He was
supposed to lead a national urban forestry program in Ottawa, but the government and university’s priori- ties changed. He finished his career at the University of Guelph. His first master’s student, Bill Morsink, became the first
of a generation of “urban foresters”. Jorgensen also encour- aged a number of others who worked as urban foresters throughout Ontario (and Canada) including: Mike Allen (Winnipeg), Lloyd Burridge (Windsor), Bill Granger (Vancouver) and Bob Perkins (Oakville). Ian Nadar, who studied under Jorgensen, brought DED control to Ottawa through the National Capital Commission in the
Fall 2016 • 39
Photo by Ken Ludwick.
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