Visible and invisible forest: The cultivation of shade in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Abstract

A consideration of the site-specific spatial experience created by urban trees and their cultural dimensions can enrich climate adaptive tree planting strategies in Winnipeg, a city of 850,000 in the central prairies of Canada. The paper begins with an introduction to traditional urban tree planting types and analyses the range of tree planting techniques that currently define public spaces in Winnipeg. A review of the recently published Urban Forest Strategy for Winnipeg highlights current strengths and challenges to climate change related tree planting in the city. Urban tree planting strategies and practices demonstrate a focus on quantifiable goals such as canopy coverage, number of trees planted or ecosystem services, with little reference to how trees define places. However, cities are constituted by the visible forest-the form and patterns of how trees are planted and the spaces they create. They are also shaped by the invisible forest, the diverse ways in which trees evoke different functions, values, and modes of occupation to different people at different times. Two basic approaches to urban tree planting will enrich climate-related tree planting initiatives by synthesizing the visible and invisible dimensions of the urban forest: Prioritizing the collective planting of trees as opposed to the single specimen and acknowledging the cultural dimensions of trees. Two design propositions from students at University of Manitoba demonstrate how trees can articulate the diverse ways people interact with trees through their spatial configuration and planting techniques. One draws upon tree types that acknowledge local agricultural tree planting strategies and the second responds to historical and contemporary Indigenous relationships to riparian trees. Acknowledging the planting of trees as a complex interplay between spatial, ecological, and cultural specificity allows for the communication of new values for the design and stewardship of urban trees and the provision of shade in a climate adaptive city.