Urban Tree Value Chain Research Priority Setting Workshop

Report on the Findings now available

The increasing demand for nature-based climate solutions represents a significant opportunity for the entire urban tree value-chain, including nursery producers, landscape contractors and municipalities. This growing demand has, however, pointed to a critical gap in identifying and executing the research required to address the many environmental challenges that affect the long-term health of urban forests.

On February 9 2021, Vineland hosted a virtual research priority setting workshop for the Urban Tree Value Chain supported by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s ‘Canadian Agriculture Strategic Priority Program’. The workshop was facilitated by James Allen from Creative Huddle and attended by participants from across the Canadian urban tree value chain.

The 50 participants in attendance for the virtual workshop included people from various actor groups including nursery producers, landscape contractors, landscape architects, landscape designers, municipalities, nursery-landscape associations, as well as representatives of Vineland’s project team. The purpose of the workshop was to bring together actors across the value chain to identify research priorities for the near and long-term future and engage in a productive discussion on how the newly proposed Greening the Landscape Research Consortium model can function in such a way as to effectively tackle the diverse priorities identified by the workshop participants.

The three top research priorities identified through the workshop process included:

  1. Tree maintenance during establishment
  2. Soil standards for tree establishment
  3. Nursery soil health and root management

A copy of the Urban Tree Value Chain Priority Setting Workshop can be downloaded from this link or by visiting the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre website: www.vinelandresearch.com