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Access to Nature

Provide incomparable access to green spaces, including the world's most spectacular urban forest

Target 1: All Vancouver residents live within a five minute walk of a park, greenway, or other green space by 2020.

Target 2:  Plant 150,000 new trees by 2020.

 

For background information on this goal area, see below.

Strategies for Access to Nature

Acquire New Parkland

One way to ensure that all Vancouver residents are within a five-minute walk of a park, greenway, or other green space is by creating new parks and green spaces. 

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Create New Parks
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Build New Greenways
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Public and Private Institutions
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Green Existing Infrastructure
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Upgrade Bikeways to Greenways
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Convert Street Right-of-Way Into Mini-Parks
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Prepare a City-wide Urban Forest Management Plan

The second Access to Nature target is to plan 150,000 trees by 2020.  That is a lot of trees.  To guide the planting of all of these trees, we’ll need a plan. 

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Develop an Urban Forest Management Plan
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Plant 90,000 New Trees on City-Owned Spaces

Of the 150,000 new trees to be planted, it is estimated that 90,000 trees could be planted on street right of ways and in existing parks.  

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Plant 45,000 New Trees on Street Right-of-Way
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Plant 45,000 New Trees in City Parks
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Plant 6,000 New Trees on Other City Land

The Access to Nature working group estimated that 6,000 new trees could be planted on other City-owned property. 

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Plant trees in the Mountain View Cemetery
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Plant trees on city-owned property
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Plant trees in Golf Courses
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Facilitate 54,000 New Trees to be Planted on Private Property

Specific actions to plant 54,000 new trees on private property by 2020 are recommended, but more research is required to determine their full impacts and potential yield of new trees.  A key issue is for the long-term care and protection of the private property trees after planting. 

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Establish a Minimum Number of Trees in Development Sites
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Revise Landscape Bylaw Standards
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Establish Promotional Programs
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Easy access to nature is central to our identity as Vancouverites. We actively enjoy our parks and green spaces, explore our city along the greenways network, and are proud of the tree canopy that covers our city.  We appreciate that our green spaces play a crucial role in supporting the health of our citizens, the ecological systems and wildlife habitat, the environment in general.  Our green spaces also provide spaces for people to relax, congregate, and recreate, which contributes to our sense of community.

Thank you for your input! The strategies and actions listed here are drafts. Read the final version of the Greenest City Action Plan.

Click to watch

Vancouver Neighbourhoods Identified as "Park Deficient" Under the Park Board Plan
Vancouver Areas Within 300m From Greenspace
application/pdf iconDraft GC2020 Access to Nature Action Plan (long).pdf
application/pdf iconDraft GC2020 Access to Nature Action Plan (short).pdf

Recently in Access to Nature

celia_bee commented on Acquire New Parkland 50 weeks 3 days ago
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ritawong commented on Acquire New Parkland 51 weeks 14 hours ago
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