York Region Planting Prioritization

The York Region Forest Management Plan (2016) identified the need for a priority planting plan to review and prioritize opportunities to increase canopy and woodland cover on public and private lands. In an effort to maximize tree benefits while working to achieve canopy cover targets, York Region staff identified potentially useful existing datasets in the design of a priority planting tool.

PlanIT Geo worked with York Region staff to select the most important benefits to the residents within York Region. Each criterion in this analysis represents a particular benefit associated with tree canopy that can be used to identify areas in need of one benefit or any combination of tree canopy benefits throughout the whole of York Region or within each municipality.

The data selected for this analysis are displayed in a customized TreePlotter CANOPY application provided to York Region. TreePlotter CANOPY was created to assist users in identifying where tree planting opportunities exist and where needs for tree canopy are greatest. This document provides details on all data sources and data processing steps performed in the creation of York Region’s customized tree planting priority mapping tool.

To access the York Region Planting Prioritization, fill out the form and download the report.