CEA in the News

Windsor going grey after large drop in green spaces seen from space

CBC News / April 5, 2022

Windsor saw some of the largest decreases in greenness between 2019 and 2001

Windsor's going grey at a rate that can be tracked from space.

Green space in the Rose City shrunk by nearly 30 per cent when researchers with Statistics Canada compared satellite images from 2011 to 2019.

The drop in green space coverage, one of the largest tracked, is consistent with what the study found in cities across Canada.

"There was an overall decrease in the greenness levels," said Jennie Wang, who worked on the report for Statistics Canada as chief of dissemination in the environment statistics program.

The dip is something that's consistent with recent trends in Windsor, such as increased development to meet housing demands and the disastrous effects of the emerald ash borer.

According to the study, satellite images show Windsor's green space growing from 76 percent in 2001 to 85 percent of its area in 2019.

But there was a dramatic drop in green space coverage to 56 per cent in 2019.

"This urban greenness metric is really one metric that can be used to measure the condition and use of all our urban areas, which are a type of ecosystem," said Wang.

Kanata, Ont, had the highest share of green space in large urban population centres with 94 per cent coverage while Winnipeg had the lowest at 38 per cent.

Bugs and buildings turn Windsor grey

The study looked at satellite images between June and August in 2001, 2011 and 2019 and estimated how much green space was in cities, which could include everything from the playground at Malden Park to front lawns.

About 75 per cent of large and medium-sized population centres saw green space coverage lower in 2019 than 2001.

In Windsor, part of the explanation may be the influx of the emerald ash borer that invaded the area in the early 2000s, said Derek Coronado, co-ordinator of the Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario.

"It took a number of years for it to really ravage the tree species in Windsor and the city was never able to recover from that," said Coronado.

"But beyond that... we're just not keeping up with what we need to keep up with in restoring lost trees."

Essex County has the lowest per cent forest coverage in Ontario, according to the City of Windsor's website, at eight per cent.

The city did not reply to CBC Windsor's interview requests.

The other big player in the greying of Windsor might be the rapid pace of development happening across the city, which would change vacant green sites to grey blocks on the satellite images.

"There's a lot of private landholders that are looking at development," said Coronado. "And one of the first things that they do is clear tree off their lots to prepare the sites."

He said there are success stories in Windsor when it comes ot conservation of green spaces.

Ojibway Nature Park, Peche Island and the net-zero planning policy for Sandwich South developments are three key pieces Coronado sees as ways the city is prioritizing green spaces.

"We have to realise that greenness isn't some special thing that we're not entitled to because we're a working class community," he said.

"Green spaces and greenness are integral to being a human."

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