Environment committee wants provincial, federal tree policy

The Windsor-Essex County Environment Committee wants to make sure urban trees continue to play an important role in communities.

It has passed a motion requesting the provincial and federal governments to develop and implement an urban tree policy which would provide municipalities with direction as well as monetary support when dealing with urban tree issues.

City councillor Alan Halberstadt is a co-chairman of the local environment committee. He said Windsor had to spend millions of dollars to handle the emerald ash borer without any compensation in return.

When you lose hundreds or thousands of trees to disease ... you're losing a valuable environmental component of society. I think provinces need to recognize that and help with more than lip service. Help with cold hard cash.

Halberstadt said it cost the city $4 million to deal with the emerald ash borer. The city took down hundreds of trees over five years to deal with the problem.

"We found out the hard way that there was no fund from the province or the feds," Halberstadt said.

The motion will be sent to city and county councils for their endorsements.