On November 5, we attended the CUFN (Canadian Urban Forest Network) and OUFC (Ontario Urban Forest Council) Workshop at the Toronto Botanical Gardens.
The CUFN Workshop this year was the inaugural workshop funded by TD Friends of the Environment Foundation to seek input from all stakeholders in the 5 CUFN regional workshops across Canada over the last three months. The input sought was to consult with, discuss and prioritize regional Urban Forest issues with participating stakeholders.
This information will be gathered from all five regions and presented in a report at the next CUFN Conference in Laval, Quebec, in Sept of 2016. This is hoped to raise the profile on Urban Forest issues at the regional and national level to find the common issues and opportunities for collaboration at a higher level. Further it is hoped that this collaboration will lead to better communications and sharing of ideas between community groups, municipalities, various levels of government and environmental non-governmental agencies.
There were many highlights from the OUFC Conference. It primarily focused on practitioner presentations on Benefits of Trees as it relates to Storm Water Management, presentations by several Non-Governmental groups to highlight their fields of interest and support to the community. Forest Ontario, Green Infrastructure Ontario, Toronto Trees and Parks Foundation, and Cabbagetown Releaf were kind enough to participate at the event.
It was a wonderful few days to discuss and learn about how we can protect our urban forests throughout Ontario. We’re looking forward to next year!