Enhancement of the Forest Canopy Structure

Young forests are dense with little structural diversity and low ground vegetation cover. Small canopy openings can be created to allow light to reach the forest floor. This promotes ground vegetation growth. These openings also create forest edges that are favoured by many bird species.

In many urban parks there are canopy openings and no ground cover or young trees to benefit from the light reaching the forest floor. Delineating walking paths and planting new young trees, provides the forest with an understory that can thrive and one day replace the gaps in the canopy. Newly planted trees will eventually become the canopy of the future forest as the mature age and die in the natural cycle of life.