Trees Are Not an Obstacle to Development

After Saanich’s defeated vote, a clearer and legally grounded path forward By Nathalie Chambers, Saanich Councillor

A defeated motion is not a final verdict. It should compel us to return with the official texts, exact attribution, legal clarity and
a practical route forward.

Recently, Saanich Council rejected my motion concerning the Universal Declaration of Tree Rights. I was disappointed, but this conversation must not end there. In Saanich, trees are living infrastructure: they cool neighbourhoods, manage water, store carbon, stabilize soils and protect biodiversity. Protecting
them is not an obstacle to development. It is part of responsible development.

Housing and tree protection are not competing public goods. Responsible growth requires us to plan homes, infrastructure and ecological systems together, measuring consequences across decades rather than one permit, one parcel or one election cycle.

Saanich’s 2019 LiDAR analysis identified at least 742,000 trees. More than 537,000 are located on private property, and roughly four-fifths of the urban forest canopy lies on land not directly managed by the municipality. That canopy covered 43 per cent of Saanich in 2019; the Urban Forest Strategy sets a target of 44 per cent by 2064. The Coastal Douglas-fir zone is British Columbia’s smallest climatic zone and its most at risk. Garry oak ecosystems survive across only a small part of the District, while more than one hundred associated species face the risk of extinction.

This distinction matters. Trees on private property are not outside municipal concern; they are outside the District’s direct ownership and day-to-day management. Their future depends on municipal bylaws and land-use decisions, but also on the knowledge, participation and support of owners. Saanich has many residents who already act as careful stewards. A practical owner-stewardship program, informed by the Declaration, could reinforce that work through education, technical assistance, public recognition
and appropriately designed incentives.
These figures do not mean that every tree is unprotected or that every project will cause ecological collapse. They do mean that decisions must account for cumulative loss, ecological rarity and the limits of replacement.        More….

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