Since 2002, W&A has had a strong presence in urban forestry and forest health management beginning with surveying and managing urban forest health issues such as oak decline, gypsy moth, invasive plants and emerald ash borer (EAB). In 2014, our R&D background and communications experience led to the CFIA retaining W&A to organize and deliver two workshops in southern Ontario (Kingston and Orillia) to provide scientific and practical information on EAB and associated ash management to practitioners (i.e, municipal and private sectors).
W&A has conducted urban tree inventories (i.e., trees associated with street and parks) and urban forest inventories (i.e., municipal and private) since the 1990’s. Since 2002, we have been very active in forest and urban forest health management, assisting Oakville with managing an oak decline crisis, helping many municipalities assess and manage for gypsy moth, EAB, and invasive plants and conducting the annual Halton Region Forest Health Survey. We completed (urban) Forest Management Plans and Strategies, Forest Management Plan and Operating Plans for Oakville (2013, 2019), Haldimand County (2016) and Collingwood (2019). Since then we have been assisting Haldimand by developing policy initiatives and conducting rural ash and urban forest inventories. Individual project experience is listed below.
2002 to Present – Forest Health and Strategic Planning in Ontario Municipalities
Oakville
- Oak Decline Management; a forest health crisis in Oakville
- Forest Management Plan, 1 & 5-year Operating Plans
- Silvicultural Prescriptions (185), Regeneration Prescriptions (95)
- Hazard tree assessments (270 km (trails/property lines), urban tree inventory. (2013 – 2018)
- Gypsy Moth Surveys, Risk Assessments woodlands/urban (2006 to 2008)
- Hosted Community workshops on Gypsy Moth and invasive insects (2007, 2008)
- Helped plan and implement Gypsy Moth Control Strategy (2006, 2007, 2008)
- Conducted small scale Gypsy Moth Control Strategy Implementation and Workshops
- Woodland Ash Management/Salvage Strategy
- Street Tree and Forest Inventory- Oakville (2008 – 2012)
- Permanent Sample/Forest Resource Inventory plot installation and re-measurement
Other Municipalities
- Toronto 2003 – Sherwood Park Restoration Plan (with Schollen & Co)
- Halton Region 2009 – 2020 – Forest Health Assessment
- Kingston 2010 – Urban Forest Management Strategy (with Senes Consulting)
- Wellington County 2010 – Developed County Forest Management Plan
- Planned and conducted hazard tree management in County forests, and forest
- Planned harvests and thinnings in County Forests (2012 – 2016)
- London 2007 – Gypsy Moth Assessment & control
- Dufferin County 2007 – Gypsy Moth Assessment
- Sarnia 2007 – Gypsy Moth Assessment
- Toronto 2014 – Planning and Managing of ash removals from 5 woodland parks
- London 2014 – Woodland Management Planning for Springhill Park
- Uxbridge (Town) 2016 – 2018 – FMP, harvest management and invasive control
- Haldimand 2016 – Urban Forest Strategy and Forest Management Plan
- 2017 – Rural Ash Inventory, Complete Street-tree inventory, Tree Policy/Bylaw development
- 2018, 2019 – Parks, Cemeteries & facilities tree inventories, Arborist Services Administration
- 2019, 2020 – Municipal facilities and hamlets tree inventories, Arborist Services Admin.
- Halton Hills (Town) 2018 – Community Forest Management Plan
- Thorold (Town) 2018-2020 – Urban Tree Inventory
- Collingwood (Town) 2019 – Urban Forest Management Plan, Inventory Update
- Metrolinx 2019-2020 – Rail Corridor Tree Inventory (with Morrison Hershfield)
