The following is a guest blog by Beverley Kalmakoff of Kelowna Tree Protectors.
Our neighbourhoods are were we live, where we spend our leisure time, where we raise our children and our grandchildren. With the pressures of development in our city, they are changing, and not necessarily for the better.
A Professor of Urban Forestry from UBC since 2016, Cecil Konijnendijk, has created what he calls the 3-30-300 Rule for designing and improving neighbourhoods. His idea has spread around the world and is being used by cities like Barcelona. It is being championed by the United Nations as a way of making our urban neighbourhoods healthy and beautiful places in which we want to continue to live as change happens around us.
And it all has to do with trees.
3-30-300 - What do the numbers mean?
3 means each person should be able to see 3 trees from where they live
30 means there should be a 30% tree canopy in your neighbourhood
300 means you should be within 300 meters of a decent park space
When you look at your neighbourhood, how close do you get to that? If not, is there a way that your neighbourhood could be improved with the 3-30-300 rule in mind? Do you need boulevard trees to increase the tree canopy? Do you have a park in your area? Is there room for one?
Can you talk to staff at city hall and advocate for improvements in your part of the city?
As our city expands and our urban areas become more densified, we need to think about the entire package, the bigger picture, and include the urban forest along with the need for more housing.
There is a wealth of information online from around the world about the 3-30-300 Rule. It is an exciting an achievable goal.