Urban Forest Advocates
The following groups are already doing amazing work to protect urban forests:
Trees Please Winnipeg
Who they are:
Trees Please Winnipeg Coalition represents citizens from Winnipeg neighbourhoods, residents’ associations and various organizations working together to call attention to our urban forest crisis and the need for sustainable investment strategies for urban forests.
Save Our Seine (SOS) River Environment Inc.
Who they are:
Save our Seine River Environment Inc. is a non-profit organization in Winnipeg whose mandate is to preserve, protect, enhance, restore and repair the Seine River greenway, to raise public education & awareness of and improve public access to the Seine River greenway, and to work in partnership with governmental, business and other non-profit organizations for stewardship planning of the Seine River greenway.
OURS Winnipeg (Outdoor Urban Recreational Spaces)
Who they are:
OURS-Winnipeg (Outdoor Urban Recreational Spaces – Winnipeg) is a city-wide, community-based, green space advocate organization with a focus on urban greenspaces, river and nature corridors and the urban forest. Parks, green spaces and natural are essential to making Winnipeg an attractive place to live, work and visit. With good planning and care they will be here for generations to come.
Trees Winnipeg
Who they are:
Trees Winnipeg is a non-profit charity dedicated to promoting the benefits of and concerns about trees in Winnipeg’s urban areas, focusing on tree diversity and care.
Forest Statistics
Tree Loss by Ward and Neighbourhood
Click here to view how the public tree canopy in St. Norbert and Seine River changed from 2015-2021. (Data courtest of Trees Please Winnipeg)
Forest Grading
Lemay Forest is an A-B grade forest
When habitat is assessed it is assigned a grade from A-D. “A” is a very good grade while “D” is not good (just like school). The definitions for these grades follow.
“A” Quality Habitat (Maximum sensitivity to disturbance): Virtually undisturbed by man or recovered to an extent where community structure and composition is intact and reflects historical natural vegetation and wildlife habitat. Other factors include soil disturbance, a high degree of native vegetation present and conversely, a lack of weedy or non-native plant species.
“B” Quality Habitat (High sensitivity to disturbance): Light to moderate disturbance, for example, encroachment of non-native species, may have a minimal amount of weeds but maintains a more natural condition where native species are still the major vegetation community.
“C” Quality Habitat (Low sensitivity to disturbance): Moderate disturbance, a significant number of weed species which have replaced native species, few native species present. For example, an old agricultural clearing that has not been used in recent times and native plant species are slowly returning, or an area that is occasionally mowed.
“D” Quality Habitat (Minimum sensitivity to disturbance): Heavily disturbed site, the vegetation is dominated by weed species or absent all together. None or very few native species present.
Reference: City of Winnipeg’s Habitat Assessment and Grading