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The urban forest

A young tree is not a replacement for an old one. Victoria is planting and losing at the same time, and the planting is slowing down.

What we are asking to change about the urban forest

From

  • Counting saplings planted
  • Setbacks treated as an obstacle to housing
  • Tree rules written without ecologists at the table
  • Protection only for what is left of intact remnants

To

  • Counting mature trees kept where they already grow
  • Setbacks understood as the space a big tree needs to live
  • Tree rules written with the people who study these systems
  • Protection for Garry oaks wherever they stand, including yards

What grows here, and why it is rare

Vancouver Island sits in the Coastal Douglas-fir zone. Development, agriculture and logging have made it one of the most at-risk natural zones in British Columbia. Inside it is the Kwetlal food system, known colonially as the Garry oak ecosystem, which emerged after the glaciers retreated around 8,000 years ago and in Canada is largely confined to the Metro Victoria area.

That open woodland character is the work of millennia of Lekwungen land management, and Lekwungen-speaking people regard it as a living artifact. Without that management the landscape would be closed stands of Douglas-fir and Grand fir.

  • Up to 75%of Garry oaks and modified Garry oak ecosystems stand on private land rather than in parks4
  • 1,600+co-evolved species the Garry oak supports, as a long-lived keystone species4
  • 250 yearsthe provincial threshold for old growth on the coast. Trees older than that are alive in Victoria yards today

Garry oaks here carry a local genetic adaptation that would be very hard to reintroduce if it were lost, and they are naturally suited to drought and heat. That makes them practical infrastructure against flooding and the urban heat island, which lands hardest on the people least able to move away from it.

What happened

  • The land use scheme was drawn without a biodiversity assessment

    Victoria 2050 set new land use classes across the city1 without a city-wide biodiversity assessment of private land. Most Garry oaks are on private land, so the plan was drawn without knowing where they are.

  • The design guidelines were written without the relevant expertise

    Development permit areas for new housing do require protection of the natural environment and its biodiversity. The general urban design guidelines for the urban forest, though, were drawn up with no record we can find that an Indigenous land manager, a licensed ecologist, a biologist or an urban forester was involved.

  • The Tree Protection Bylaw has not caught up

    Bylaw 21-0355 has not, as far as we can find, been updated since the provincial housing directives of 2022, and it cannot physically protect an existing tree that stands inside a proposed building envelope. A bylaw that gives way to the outline of a building protects nothing.

  • The canopy is still growing, much more slowly than before

    According to Terra Remote Sensing's 2025 Vegetation Canopy Change Detection Analysis, between 2007 and 2023 Victoria's urban forest area grew from 26.41% to 30.01%, a 3.6 point increase over sixteen years.1

    Between 2019 and 2023 the report recorded a 1.37% net increase in canopy. That is not a four point increase over three years, and the difference matters because the rate is the whole story.

    The rate of city-wide canopy growth fell by more than half between monitoring periods: 2.37% across 2013 to 2019, against 1.08% across 2019 to 2023.

    This matters because numbers tell a story. Victoria's urban forest is still growing, but it is growing much more slowly than it once was. Taking the average rate of growth per five year monitoring period, 1.16%, the City's 40% canopy target for 2050 would not be reached until roughly 2069, and that assumes development pressure, climate impacts and tree losses do not increase.

  • Setbacks protect soil and root zones

    Large native trees need substantial, uncompacted soil volume. A 6 metre back yard setback, now common in intensified zoning areas, leaves very little room to keep an existing large tree or to plant one that will ever become large. Below that, planting space becomes decoration instead of a tree that will ever get big.

  • Setbacks are how biodiversity crosses private land

    Ecological networks do not stop at park boundaries. They run through yards, hedgerows and the gaps between buildings. In a city where most Garry oaks are outside protected areas, those gaps are the corridor.

  • Setbacks are also fire, access and heat

    Space between buildings slows fire spread, lets emergency crews in, absorbs stormwater and moderates extreme heat. As the climate pushes harder on all four, those gaps are infrastructure, not decoration.

The City's own plan commits it, under Reconciliation Actions, to "seek to understand the practices that have supported ecosystem conservation for millennia and work collaboratively to braid Indigenous knowledge systems with Western science in preserving and enhancing natural assets, and in advancing a climate-forward city."1

We think the bylaws and the process underneath that commitment work against it. Urban forest guidelines drawn up with no record of an Indigenous land manager in the room are the clearest example.

What the next council should do

  • Add Garry oak species detection to the City's ongoing remote sensing of the urban forest, so the City knows what it has.
  • Establish the Urban Forest Technical Advisory Group recommended in the City's own 2012 Urban Forest Master Plan, with Indigenous knowledge systems, ecologists, biologists and urban foresters represented.
  • Restore landscape area minimums from 6% to 9% in priority growth and residential infill areas, and treat plantable space as the leading indicator of canopy success.
  • Increase setbacks by at least 2 metres of dedicated plantable area, so large canopy trees are possible rather than ornamental ones.
  • Update the plan's applied guidelines to protect modified Garry oak ecosystems and individual trees, not only intact remnants.

Ask every candidate

  • Will you update the Tree Protection Bylaw so it can protect a mature tree inside a proposed building envelope?
  • Will you restore landscape minimums to 9% and add plantable setback area?
  • Should the City complete a city-wide biodiversity assessment, including private land, before approving further land use changes?
  • Do you count canopy success by saplings planted or by mature trees retained?

Sources

  1. City of Victoria, Victoria 2050: Official Community Plan (with appendices), Bylaw 25-045, October 2, 2025. Plan documents
  2. City of Victoria, "Tree Canopy 2023", Open Data Portal. Tree Canopy 2023
  3. Terra Remote Sensing, "2025 Vegetation Canopy Change Detection Analysis", reporting canopy area of 26.41% in 2007 and 30.01% in 2023, a 1.37% net increase between 2019 and 2023, and growth rates of 2.37% across 2013 to 2019 against 1.08% across 2019 to 2023. Commentary and figures
  4. Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team, on the species a Garry oak supports and the share of these ecosystems on private land. Why Garry oak ecosystems matter
  5. City of Victoria, trees and the urban forest, including the Tree Protection Bylaw. Trees and the urban forest

Keep reading

The setback and green space rules come out of the Official Community Plan, which the OCP guide covers clause by clause. The planning decisions behind them are in development and neighbourhoods.

Where the deep detail lives

  • the OCP guide walks through the 2025 Official Community Plan clause by clause.
  • the real tax bill traces where the money went, with every figure sourced.
  • the media tracker collects what local reporters have written, sorted by issue.
  • the glossary explains the terms council uses in plain language.

The next council decides what happens to the trees still standing.

Election day is Saturday, October 17, 2026. Make a plan now, while it is easy.

Make your voting plan See who is running

What has been written about this

Our members have tracked 14 pieces on this issue since January, from news reports to letters. The five most recent are below, and the notes are our members' own.

All 14 pieces on this issue

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