Staff have released their report on the feasibility of a private tree bylaw which provides options for council's consideration and outlines which ones staff support.

Staff do not support proceeding with a private tree bylaw, and instead endorse pursuing public education.

Council can approve one or more of the suggested options, take no action, or wait till staff bring a formal recommendation report back for consideration in September.

I support introducing some sort of private tree bylaw, and am willing to look at a carrot rather than a stick approach to start. The bylaw could initially simply be a tree registry where residents must notify the city they are going to remove a private tree, and either make a contribution to a tree planting fund or plant a replacement tree on their property. We could also use the registry to track progress toward reaching a tree canopy goal, as other municipalities do. If we find that too many healthy trees are being cut down, we can initiate stronger measures through the tree bylaw. Trees may be on public property but they provide a community and city-wide benefit, and as such we must work to protect them.