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economist suntribune environment thursday june 27 2002 trees becoming endangered species by mike adler staff writer when she arrived in southern ontario as an immigrant from serbia danijela puric- mladenovic expected to see more forests as a graduate student in forestry she has closely studied york regions dwindling forests for five years while piecing together a his torical record of trees that once grew here in abundance we can barely imagine when the first surveyors came through and noted the type of trees growing on each settlement lot ms puricmladenovic now believes 85 to 95 per cent of the region was cov ered by a green canopy yonge street was a tiny tiny line in a sea of forest she said today york has a tree cover of only 18 per cent most of it very dif ferent than what existed here when loggers and farmers started carving up the wilderness but we still have settlers minds when it comes to forests ms puric- mladenovic said they needed food for their kids but do we need to clear forests now for food no it takes a month to build a house or pave a road but centuries to grow a mature forest said ms puric- mladenovic she surveyed 200 patches of for est from 1998 to 2000 and argues the region which sponsored her work must plan forest priorities now for the next 200 years yorks remaining forests are on lands people have not wanted to use for development or agriculture and most of that land is on or north of the oak ridges moraine in the north the forest covers 29 per cent and is more mixed contin uous and connected on the moraine much of the 25- percent tree cover is in tracts of pines planted in the 1920s on abandoned land after nearcom plete logging of the moraine had produced blowing sands that made farming impossible since that time however the region has not seen any large move ment to enhance forest cover although there are plantings each year by volunteers and conserva tion authorities in the south only 9 per cent of the forest remains most of it in young isolated woodlots invaded by manitoba maple and other non- native species one of the biggest and best pre served of these woodlots is the baker sugar bush at bathurst street and hwy 7 most of which was saved in 1999 in a joint effort by the city ofvaughan the local conserva tion authority and the region its 74 acres have been managed for 180 years so it more or less has the areas natural forest cover but ms puricmladenovic said the sugar bush has not really been protected it has been left disconnected from other woodlots its drainage changed and a highway built along one side ms puricmladenovic said one morning as she stood beside five trailers selling homes in thornhill woods the premier woodland community which is growing beside the bush lost forest she said trees that grew in a closed forest canopy had been left exposed vulnerable to sun and wind she imagined the thousands of new residents walking through the forest as she would do and let ting pets roam many woodlots in the region face the same conditions eventually the sugar bush will become an urban park ms puric- mladenovic predicted its lost as a forest the university of toronto phd candidate who will speak at a con ference on urban forest planning in markham this fall argues there is still time to enhance the forests we have particularly if we allow scrub areas often disused farmland that has sprouted poplars and other earlystage forest vegetation to mature further but the region currently redraw ing its map of protected forest areas for its official plan is under pres sure from farmers who want to use scrub forest lands for agriculture the region approved one farmers reclamation request last fall after trees had been cut last month it turned down two others one of whom wanted to reclaim 10 acres in a provincially significant forest and wetland all three areas are part of the danijela puricmladenovic below stands on the dividing line between the baker sugar bush and thornhill woods a subdivision developed beside the bush graphic at right produced by ms puricmladenovic from records of 200 years ago shows where oak trees dominated certain areas of york region x3 tfc j regions greenlands system of natu ral areas newmarket regional councillor diane humeniuk how ever said she will meet mayors of east gwillimbury georgina king and whitchurchstouffville to dis cuss a policy to allow reclamation i believe there is a difference between the vegetation that grows back on such farmlands that may be in the form of scrub or bush versus staff photorob alary indigenous forest trees which of course we must protect she stated in a written response a reclamation policy must prevent nonagricultur al development and that significant forests or treed areas would not be removed she added developers bought thousands of acres of farmland in the region driving up the price farmers cant afford to buy land so they have to farm their own marginal lands said gary sedore a georgina farmer whose family has been in the town since the 1830s mr sedore used to cut hay on the back of his wifes property near willow beach land low and a bit wet that now has dogwood and poplar standing 20 feet tall its proposed new official plan would reclassify large areas of georgina the town with more for est than any other in the region as environmentally sensitive mr sedore said he thinks farmers will fight the plan somebody 20 miles away is say ing you cant go out into that field and touch those trees said mr sedore who suggested the town start a conservancy fund to give its farmers fair value for land they wont be able to use otherwise he argued theyre trying to steal our land without paying for it the region needs a complete plan for its natural areas and to ask questions about where its greening strategy is headed said paul harpley president of the south lake simcoe naturalists club and a member of a regional forest adviso ry panel we havent seen that yet p ral erneu itcovjiflt with the difference web site hosting 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