Excerpts from a January 13, 2013 post on the GA List about the 2013 Budget which focused on the Environmental Lands Acquisition Fund and the EAB Program:
The Fund
+ As per Council decision of 11 July 2012, $1 million was transferred out towards the EAB campaign. Ref.: Motion 38/13, http://app06.ottawa.ca/calendar/ottawa/citycouncil/occ/2012/07-11/englishminutes38.pdf.
+ On 13 July 2011, Council adopted Motion EC 9/3 as modified by Motion 16/4, resolving to increase funding for Council’s “Strategic Initiative No. 22 – Increase Forest Cover” in 2012, 2013 and 2014; a specified portion was to be used specifically for the EAB Program. Ref.: http://app06.ottawa.ca/calendar/ottawa/citycouncil/occ/2011/07-13/englishminutes16.htm. The amount for 2012 (which turned out to be $805,000, from an original $700,000 in the Motion) was to be borrowed from the Environmental Lands Acquisition Fund and repaid in 2013. These ins and outs can be traced in aforementioned Document 2 and are corroborated in the 2013 Budget papers for the Finance and Economic Development Committee, pages 124-131.
The EAB Program
+ The 2013 Budget papers give just one hint about what was done in 2012: A 1-page briefing note from Forestry Services, states that “1,512 trees were injected in 2012”; ref. Environment Committee 2013 Budget, page 32.
+ 2013 Funding for the Forest Cover initiative as per the 2011 Motion (as amended) is found on page 37 of the Environment Committee Budget ($725,000; of the original amount, $900,000, $400,000 was to go to the EAB Program).
+ The “Lifecycle Renewal – Tree Program,” which has 3 components, is allocated $1,175,000. One of the components references tree replacement related to the EAB disease (page 44). Page 52 of the Budget papers reveals that, as of 24 September 2012, $1.031 million of the 2012 authority for this program (almost half) was neither spent nor committed.
+ EAB is also mentioned as one subcomponent of a 3-item $375,000 allocation for “Rural & Urban Environmental Initiatives” (page 45).
+ Overall, Forestry Services saw its 2013 Budget increase by $1.5 million, to $14.620 million. Its Full Time Equivalent staff will increase by 5.58, to 87.18. Two of those FTEs are allocated to aforementioned Forest Cover initiative; the others are in support of “Growth” (ref. pages 1, 35 and 37).
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A memo from Maria McRae to Council on the EAB program, dated September 2012, provides data in addition to what could be found in the Budget:
– as of 2012, a total of 2,309 Ash trees were in the treatment program (1,512 in 2012);
– 1,267 trees were planted in the spring and another 2,700 were planned to be planted last fall, for a total of 3,967 in 2012. The memo confirms that the City is now planting 50mm caliper trees instead of 25mm (“In response to community suggestions”);
– 56 traps were installed in 2012, to collect monthly data on insect population and movement.
In part, the memo claims to account for the additional $1 million allocated by Council on July 11, 2012 (taken from the Environmental Lands Acquisition Fund). Reported are:
– an additional 262 trees in the injection program;
– a new notification process for inter-planting;
– “design tree plantings plans for communities that have yet to receive new trees”.
Presumably a portion of the 2,700 fall plantings are also financed by the additional allocation.
Comment: Doesn’t look like a million dollars worth to me.
There are no figures on how much wood Ottawa Cedar Lumber is taking, nor where that wood is coming from except that it all appears to be diverted from the Trail dump since the tipping fees are reported to be going down by 30% and the wood is being moved “directly to a processing site”.
There is no indication in the memo about whether the City is chipping the barks of felled trees on-site, nor what is happening with the football field of dead Ashes at the Trail site.
There is no information about how many Ashes have been felled.
Erwin