Burnaby sets long-term course for a larger, more resilient urban forest

Burnaby is aiming to grow its urban tree canopy from 32 per cent in 2022 to 40 per cent by 2075, Mayor Mike Hurley said in a letter to residents.

The city planted 8,051 trees in the 2025–26 planting season, its largest single-season total. Trees cover about 2,900 hectares of Burnaby, or more than 600,000 trees, and more than 70 per cent of the canopy is publicly managed.

Hurley also highlighted Ken Shinozaki’s $500,000 donation. It includes $350,000 to plant more than 150 trees in Central Park and $150,000 to begin forest restoration at Halifax Park. Through the Green Legacy Challenge, the City is seeking to raise total funding for Halifax Park to $300,000; residents can contribute through the City’s Green Legacy Fund on CanadaHelps.

The City’s 2025 Urban Forest Strategy estimates the urban forest provides more than $8.1 million annually in environmental benefits. It removes about 259 tonnes of air pollutants, captures about 7,579 tonnes of carbon and prevents about 818 million litres of stormwater runoff each year.

Hurley said growth, aging trees, heat, drought, pests, disease and invasive plants all pose challenges. Under the Burnaby Tree Bylaw, protected-tree removal requires a permit and replacement planting; where replacements cannot fit on a development site, owners or developers must pay $1,500 per tree into the Civic Tree Reserve Fund.