At this point the proposed city budget
doesn't include monies to improve maintenance of existing trees.
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City treasurer Joe Rinaldo has confirmed that Hamilton will allocate $1.5 million to tree planting next year, but at this point the proposed city budget doesn't include monies to improve maintenance of existing trees. Rinaldo unveiled an outline of the budget last week.
City forestry crews currently trim street trees about once every 12 years. The recommended minimum cycle is once every five years. Older trees and ones in high-impact areas like downtown should receive annual maintenance.
The current city coverage also doesn't include any of the former suburban municipalities. A 2003 report estimated it would cost nearly $10 million to extend the coverage to the full urban area and adopt an eight-year maintenance cycle.
In 2003 city council eliminated tree planting entirely in order to reduce the operating budget. At that time, and for several years previously, the city was planting 750 trees a year, but taking down about 2000.
Last spring the councillors discovered a less painful way of financing tree planting by using the capital budget. They postponed a bridge replacement to generate sufficent monies to plant 2000 trees. The proposed 2005 budget keeps tree planting in the capital budget where the use of debt and reserves allows the council to postpone full payment of the bills.
A study conducted in 2003 in Westdale found that 30% of the city-owned trees were in very poor condition.
