70% of upper tree canopy lost in Pine Grove and Pinhey Forest, NCC says

About 70 per cent of the tallest trees in Pine Grove and Pinhey Forest werelost to a devastating windstorm in May, according to the National Capital Commission (NCC).

To put that in perspective, the area of upper canopy loss (about 1,890 hectares) in those two Ottawa Greenbeltwoodlands aloneis nearly the size of five Central Experimental Farms.

The farm sits on about four square kilometres of land.

About 180 hectares of red pinein those two woodlands planted in straight lines by the province in the 1950s and '60sto be harvested forutility poles were particularly battered by the derecho, added NCC biologist Alexander Stone.

Red pines have no central taproot, making them more susceptible to toppling by wind, Stonesaid. The NCC no longer plants thisspecies.

(Natural Resources Canada saidred pines do sometimes have taproots and calls the trees "windfirm." The provincesays their roots "go fairly deep into the ground and are widespread; this means that the tree can withstand strong winds without blowing down.")

Regeneration will take decades

Storms are part of nature, clearing out older trees and opening up the canopy for "early successional species"to grow, Stone said.

In two to three years we can expect "a lot more balsam poplar" to shoot up in derecho-ravaged spaces, he said. They can grow up to about three metres by their third year, as the NCC saw at Bruce Pit aftertornadoesswept through Ottawa and Gatineau in 2018.

But it'll take decades, maybe even 100 years, for Pine Grove and Pinheyto look the way they did before the storm.Stone said there are plans to help nature along with some tree planting as happened in Bruce Pit.

"We hope to have a good replanting strategy for those areas," he said.

Natural regeneration preferred, forester says

BrunoChicoine, anNCCforest engineer, said the first step is to evaluate what will naturally regenerate.

"We know that natural regeneration is usually more [preferred] than planted treesand it's cheaper, of course," he said.

And while the NCC recently committed to planting 100,000 trees as part of its 2021-2026 forest strategy, itfocuses more on expanding the urban canopy, Chicoine said.

He also describedthe forest strategy as an "intention" document about wishing to expand the canopy.

"So of course, that storm is a major step back, if you will. But it doesn't change the fact that the NCC recognizes the importance of forests and trees on its land, and wants to get better in this direction," Chicoine said.

No plan to get rid of assets

In a recentclimate vulnerability and risk assessment, the NCC said "If climate risks are not proactively managed, the NCC will need to seek more funds, decrease service level standards, and/or abandon assets and programs."

Horticulturalist Marc-Antoine Poitras, the NCC'scontract management officer of Ontario urbanlands and the Greenbelt, said Monday that "there's no plan to divest ourselves of assets.

"Obviously this storm was a significant impact but it's definitely something what we can manage," he said.

TheNCCgenerally doesn't do much work in woodlands to allow natural processes to unfold, he said, and while intervention is needed after this storm"it's well within our capabilities" and funding will be sought from the government.

WATCH | A timeline update from the NCC:

Derecho knocked down 70 per cent of tree canopy in some areas, NCC says

2 years ago

Duration 1:23

Marc-Antoine Poitras, an acting manager with the NCC, says cleanup efforts will take months, with the number of downed trees too high to count. NCC biologist Alexander Stone says it will take decades for new growth to replace the lost tree canopy.

The first priority was cleaning upresidential propertiesbordering NCClands. Mostof that worktook about six to eight weeksbutisongoing, Poitras said.

The next focus was trails and sites such as dog parks.

The work has run the gamut, Poitras said, from contractors handling small-scale debris with chainsaws to more specialized work involvingcrews of arborists, as well as large-scaleforestry operations usingheavy equipment in Pine Grove and PinheyForest.

The NCC did its best to triage the work that needed to be doneamid labour shortages and the "huge" scale of the damage, he said.

Poitrasaddedthat the NCChopes to have all trails open in three to four weeks.