One group in Thorncliffe Park went on a walk to better understand different types of trees and advocate for tree equity.
Thorncliffe Park is one of Toronto’s first high-density residential neighbourhoods, built in the 1950s. Today, over 20,000 people live in just over three square kilometres.
The City of Toronto’s Tree Equity Score Analyzer shows that some parts of the neighbourhood have as low as nine per cent tree canopy cover, and is on average, 2.3 C hotter than the rest of the city, causing residents to experience intense heat.
So, what is tree equity? It’s the fair distribution of trees in all neighbourhoods. But a 2023 study on urban forestry shows that Toronto has an unequal distribution based on socioeconomic factors like income and race.
Michelle Delaney, project lead of Thorncliffe Park Urban Farmers, says, “We have a lot of high-rise buildings that are overcrowded and because of that, we have a lot of power outages. [There are] people who don’t have air conditioning, so you know those people can come outside and cool down under trees, but we need those types of spaces for people.”
As a result, Toronto Environmental Alliance (TEA) teamed up with Thorncliffe Park Urban Farmers and Don Valley West for Environmental Action to host a tree walk in the neighbourhood, teaching residents about existing trees and empowering them to join local advocacy groups.
Aruna Samant, a new immigrant in East York, who went on the tree walk, says, “I realized the different ways by which you can bring change. People here are putting in effort. Organizations like TEA or the Urban Farmers have already travelled a path, they have set an example which I found in this community most suitable.”
Emily Alfred, a waste campaigner at TEA, explains that all Torontonians can take care of trees in their neighbourhoods, but it is also important to push municipal, provincial and federal levels of government to take action.
“To improve the urban forest, we really need to look at solutions on every level. We need to get more trees planted on private property around the rental buildings,” she explains. “We need more trees on public property like the boulevards on the street and in public parks, and we can also look at schoolyards and other community spaces.”
While TEA hopes to conduct tree walks with local groups in other low-income neighbourhoods, the Thorncliffe Park Urban Farmers Group is continuing their work to revitalize unused lawn space into communal gardens and plant more fruit trees in their neighbourhoods.