The City of Winnipeg is encouraging its residents to celebrate National Forestry Week, September 23 – 29, 2012, by learning more about Winnipeg’s trees. There are approximately 8 million trees in the city.
Winnipeg Tree Facts:
* The total number of boulevard and park trees in Winnipeg is approximately 280,000.
* The Urban Forestry Branch plants 1,400 trees on average each year on boulevard and park property.
* Winnipeg shade trees can have a life span of 200 years.
* Winnipeg holds the distinction of having the largest remaining mature urban elm forest in North America with approximately 140,000 elms.
* Winnipeg has the largest indigenous population of bur oak in any city in Western Canada. Bur oak is the only oak species native to the Canadian prairies.
* The first ornamental tree plantings in the City of Winnipeg date back to about the late 1860s, but boulevard planting did not become general practice until around the early 1900s. Examples of these plantings can be seen in downtown Winnipeg, River Heights and St. Boniface.
