186 Conway and Lue: Resident Knowledge and Support for Private Tree By-Laws in Greater Toronto Area Given the lack of enforcement, the effective- ness of such regulations are dependent on land- owners’ awareness and willingness to following the permitting process, and more generally, their interest in retaining large trees on their prop- erty. This study explores residents’ awareness and support for municipal private tree by-laws in three Canadian municipalities as a way to consider the type of outreach needed to ensure widespread compliance. The study munici- palities, Toronto, Mississauga, and Brampton, represent highly populated cities located in southern Ontario. Residents in each municipality were surveyed to determine 1) basic know- ledge-levels associated with the regulations, 2) the extent of support for different components of the by-laws, and 3) participant socio-demo- graphic characteristics associated with by-law knowledge and support to help identify outreach and education strategies to increase aware- ness and support for private tree protection. REGULATING PRIVATE TREES Stand-alone tree regulations, oſten called tree ordinances in the United States and tree by-laws in Canada, which protect street trees or other pub- lic trees from damage or removal, are widespread and have existed for at least a century in North America (Cooper 1996; Stevenson et al. 2008; Zhang et al. 2009). Staring in the 1970s, munici- pal tree ordinances that protected trees on private property during subdivision, or other land devel- opment, were adopted in many areas (Coughlin et al. 1988; Cooper 1996; Kielbaso et al. 1988; Dick- erson et al. 2001). Recent surveys of several U.S. states indicate more than half of local municipali- ties now have regulations protecting trees during land development (Elmendorf et al. 2003; Rines et al 2011; Templeton and Rouse 2015). While historically rare in North America, an increas- ing number of municipalities also protect trees on already developed private property, including residential property (Conway and Urbani 2007). Municipal regulation of trees on developed private property has taken two forms: 1) protec- tion of specific trees, based on cultural heritage or noteworthy specimens or 2) blanket protec- tion of all trees over a certain size (Wyse et al. 2015). Heritage or noteworthy tree protection ©2018 International Society of Arboriculture regulations are the more common approach in North America, while blanket tree protec- tion regulations are relatively common in urban municipalities in Europe and also exist in several Australian cities (Schmied and Pillman 2003; Gilbert and Brack 2007; Kelly 2013). In recent years, adoption of a blanket private tree by-laws has become more common in Ontario and other urban municipalities in the U.S. and Canada. Blanket tree protection regulations typically require that the property owner apply for a permit before trees over a given size (or number) can be removed, replace any tree(s) approved for removal, pay a fee associated with the permit application, and possesses the authority to levy monetary fines against violators (Coughlin et al. 1988). Ide- ally, tree replacement requirements should specify that equivalent species be planted following a pre- determined planting schedule (Cooper 1996). Several case studies suggest blanket private tree regulations have positive impacts on the urban for- est (Landry and Pu 2010; Sung 2012; Sung 2013). For example, a study conducted by Sung (2012) in Texas, U.S., comparing mean height of trees in areas that had private tree protection policies to trees in areas without such protections, calculated that tree heights were on average 0.58 m taller when a regulation was in place. Urban heat island effects are also less pronounced in areas that have a tree protection ordinance (Sung 2013). In Tampa, Florida, U.S., locations with tree protection regu- lations have higher canopy cover, as compared to those without blanket tree protections, and also experienced increases in canopy cover aſter adopting the regulation (Landry and Pu 2010). While blanket private tree regulations can have a positive impact on the urban forest, Conway and Bang (2014) found that residents generally do not support the idea of a regulation that lim- its tree removal on private property. Specifically, support levels are lower for this type of policy than volunteer programs encouraging tree plant- ing. Beyond surveying municipalities to determine if they have private tree regulations and studies examining the impacts of the regulations on char- acteristics of the urban forest itself, the authors were not able to identify any studies exploring residents’ knowledge or support for specific pri- vate tree regulations. Yet, knowledge and support
July 2018
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