Car horns blare and trucks roar by on Lakeshore Boulevard only a few metres away from the three men inspecting an intricate grid of tiny flags and wooden pegs stuck in the lawn of an obscure corner of the Exhibition Place grounds. 

 

To those driving by, the mysterious figures—equipped with measuring tapes, laptop computers, ground probes, shovels and digital cameras—must look like a team of forensic scientists investigating a crime scene. They are investigating something, though it's not a crime.

 

Tall, with broad shoulders and a youthful face, Andrew Millward is an assistant professor of Geography at Ryerson University. He and two of his students are mapping out the research area for a new study investigating the benefits of spreading wood mulch around young trees. It's the latest in a series of projects that Millward and his research group, Urban Forest Research and Ecological Disturbance (UFRED), have conducted in Toronto's parks and green spaces since the group's inception just over four years ago. In their efforts to learn more about natural spaces, especially those in distress, Millward and his team of young urban geeks are using the latest technology to help create an urban forest that's more resilient. 

 

"It incorporates what I have learned in class and takes it into the real world and applies it. Sometimes we're inside analyzing data, sometimes we're outside in beautiful parks. It's the best of all worlds," says UFRED team member Adriano Nicolucci, an undergraduate completing a degree in geographic analysis.

 

Considering that more than 80 per cent of Canadians live in cities, for most of us, everyday nature is the trees that line city streets, shade parks and grace residential yards. The giant protective shield of this urban forest shades residents from harmful ultraviolet rays, cools temperatures and filters out air pollutants. The leaves of urban trees also play the vital role of reducing the rate at which rainwater hits the ground, minimizing the damage to sewer systems and rivers caused by rushing storm water, saving millions of dollars in repairs each year. 

 

However, our urban forest is ailing. Under the constant pressures of development, pollution, drought and exotic pests, urban trees often die years before their expected maturity, which increases maintenance costs. As well, climate change is being felt most heavily in urban areas where the abundance of asphalt and concrete exacerbate hot temperatures, which combine with low-level pollution to make for very unpleasant living conditions for urban forests. 

 

All of this explains the word "disturbance" in the name of Millward's research group. A graduate of Environmental Science and Geography at the University of Guelph, Millward holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Waterloo. During his studies, Millward became highly skilled in GIS (Geographic Information Systems) mapping technology. Faced with choosing a specific subject matter for his geographic research, he remembered back to his youth in Toronto's east end, which was spent exploring the city's ravines and parks. So he decided to study trees. "I fondly remember riding BMX bikes with my friends under the giant oaks of Kew Gardens, in The Beach," says Millward, 38. 

 

Urban forestry is a relatively new area of study and Millward, who is also vice-president of the board of directors of LEAF (Local Enhancement and Appreciation of Forests), saw GIS as an effective tool for understanding these natural spaces in cities. Shortly into his research, he learned that the BMX bike riding he so relished as a kid, when done under mature trees like those in Kew Gardens, can seriously damage them by compacting the soil, starving their roots of oxygen, water and nutrients. Learning that his own actions had likely damaged the oaks of his park, Millward realized the importance of studying our urban green spaces.

 

Launched in 2008, UFRED's research is at the forefront of efforts to make our cities more livable using precise geographic analysis to map real-time data. So far, 15 participant graduate students have completed research projects through UFRED. That includes one on the economic benefits provided by the trees in Allan Gardens, (an estimated US$26,326 in 2008—$16,665 in environmental benefits and $9,661 in aesthetic benefits) and one on the effects of naturalizing portions of Kew Gardens in The Beach.

 

"GIS puts the real world into perspective," says Vadim Sabetski, another geographical analysis undergraduate helping with the Exhibition Place project. "It helps us better understand the relationships in the natural and urban environment."

 

The results of the group's collaborative efforts include colourful maps of the parks studied. Bright reds, greens and blues illustrate areas of high and low moisture, levels of nutrients in the soil and places where trees will grow best. Creating each map is no easy task. Researchers lay out an extensive grid on the studied area and then collect data at regular intervals. GIS software is then used to interpolate values between the collected points to map a two-dimensional surface.

 

There are many useful applications. The maps enable park managers, politicians and residents to visualize how different areas in the park are experiencing complex ecological processes such as the impact of a prolonged drought on mature trees or trucks driving over parkland and compacting soil. The maps enable the development of better strategies to improve growing conditions and preserve our mature tree canopy. 

 

For the Exhibition Place project, Millward and his students have installed 40 electronic temperature and soil sensors in the ground with wires that send readings to a hard drive on site. The researchers then download the data onto a laptop for analysis. There are also 72 soil nutrient monitors and a meteorological station that records precipitation, solar radiation, temperature and relative humidity. The data collected will be used to investigate the effects of applying wood mulch around young trees. The landscape practice is believed to improve a tree's growing conditions, yet there has been limited scientific research quantifying the benefits. The UFRED findings will inform the management of the trees on the Exhibition Place grounds and, Millward hopes, trees throughout the city.

 

The latest in GIS technology, meteorological stations and underground electronic data sensors and the use of large plots of land don't come cheap. Millward and his team rely on partnerships with landowners like Exhibition Place and the City of Toronto, with funding support from Ryerson and grants from organizations like the Toronto Parks and Trees Foundation. 

 

The program provides the students with valuable work experience and useful research findings. There are also benefits for taxpayers. It costs upwards of $500 for the city to plant a single tree; the cost to maintain it over its lifetime is hundreds more. With politicians trying to find every dollar of savings, this kind of research will help ensure Toronto's planted trees survive.

 

The UFRED group comes from a diverse array of disciplines including geography, biology and chemistry. That's one of UFRED's greatest strengths. "We are not all tree experts, but we are experts of other things," says Millward, "and we all come together to understand this complex urban ecosystem."

Todd Irvine is a freelance writer and urban forestry consultant with Bruce-Irvine & Associates where he specializes in the protection of mature trees.