Tree canopy loss a \u2018significant challenge\u2019 in Surrey<\/p>\n
Published 1:00 pm Tuesday, March 3, 2026<\/p>\n
Representatives of Surrey\u2019s seven-member Environment and Climate Change Committee discussed accomplishments in 2025 and priorities for 2026 during a recent presentation before council-in-committee at Surrey City Hall.<\/p>\n
The ECCC\u2019s purpose is to \u201cprovide a community perspective\u201d to council and advise its members on environmental protection, reducing greenhouse gases, and other issues related to climate change and sustainability through identifying trends and reporting on them.<\/p>\n
Some areas it tackled in 2025 include salmon habitat restoration, invasive species, tree protection bylaw issues, water conservation and drought management, the city\u2019s cycling network plan, and RELEAF tree planting events at Hazelnut Meadows Park, Panorama Park and Bob Rutledge Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe RELEAF events, they focus on restoring and enhancing the quality of the urban tree canopy and ecosystems. They were in fact very popular events, lots of folks coming out, lots of kids coming out as well,\u201d Sadja said, adding participants learned about the importance and legacy of the tree canopy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn some cases the events were so popular that the trees were actually rationed off so that you could only plant so many trees because there weren\u2019t that many available.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among its 2025 recommendations to council, the committee urged city hall to prioritize monitoring tree canopy integrity \u201cto best meet the needs of residents.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ECCC\u2019s 2026 initiatives include recommendations to support increased services related to illegal dumping, reviewing tree protection regulation for agricultural land and tree clearing permits, watershed management, corporate and community emissions and biodiversity design guidelines and their application in Surrey.<\/p>\n
Waraich told council the salmon habitat restoration program, aka SHaRP, has proved to be an \u201cincredibly valuable\u201d program for Surrey. \u201cWith 30 years of history SHaRP has worked all across Surrey providing important restoration work and offering great job-training for both Surrey high school and university students,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cInvesting in SHaRP protects salmon, strengthens climate resilience and supports long-term ecological services. The environment committee recommended that SHaRP see more support through a diversity of core funding that would be increased to meet rising employment cost and environmental priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Invasive species is also a \u201cvery important\u201d top on the ECCC\u2019s radar, Waraich noted. \u201cSurrey has numerous programs to remove and replace invasive vegetation and yet some invasives are still sold at nurseries and garden shops. The environment committee recommended that council direct staff to develop a bylaw to restrict the sale of invasive plants in Surrey and that Surrey\u2019s bylaw be sent to Metro Vancouver Board for consideration in other municipalities in the region. Requesting regional adoption through Metro Vancouver promotes consistency and strong outcomes as we know that there are no boundaries for the invasive species.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moreover, Waraich told council urban tree canopy loss is a \u201cgrowing concern due to development pressures and climate stress. Urban tree canopy is an important resource for Surrey\u2019s residents, supporting biodiversity, offering shade, cooling and resilience to climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n
Surrey\u2019s tree protection bylaw, he said, is the \u201cprincipal tool\u201d to protect the urban tree canopy and added that \u201cthe environment committee recognized that loss of tree canopy is a significant challenge in Surrey.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayor asked if there\u2019s \u201cany chance of ever getting ahead of the blackberries that we see everywhere? Like, is that even something we can even achieve because it seems like as soon as they\u2019re removed, they\u2019re so tenacious those things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sadja replied that speaking from his own perspective anything is possible \u201cif you dream big enough, but it would certainly be a massive challenge for the City to tackle that all and it would probably have to be done in coordination with neighbouring municipalities because the ecosystem doesn\u2019t obey any political boundaries so, you know, it would be a very, very big challenge and I think it\u2019s probably not the best use of our resources in the City, that\u2019s my own personal perspective, not speaking for the committee.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tree canopy loss a \u2018significant challenge\u2019 in Surrey Published 1:00 pm Tuesday, March 3, 2026 Representatives of Surrey\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":{"0":"post-512442","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-surrey","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-surrey"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}