The City of New Westminster's Urban Forestry Team is working towards completing its Replacement Tree Inventory and Assessment Project to better understand the successes and challenges of planting and maintaining young trees on private property.
Over the 2026 summer months, residents will be receiving emails and letters requesting an inspection of trees so that the City can gather important data to help measure the health and viability trees planted since the adoption of the tree bylaw. Review the tree bylaw for more information.
As part of this work, staff will be working to connect with those who either:
- worked with the City previously on obtaining a tree cutting permit and planted a replacement tree(s) as a component of that permit, or,
- live on private property with replacement trees, planted as part of that permit
If you receive an email or letter from the City about the Replacement Tree Inventory and Assessment Project, we encourage you to participate.
Any questions about this initiative can be emailed to
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is the City doing this?
The City of New Westminster is looking to compile data on how well our replacement trees are faring in the urban environment and to provide staff with guidance around where we can improve our processes. These improvements will help to increase and enhance urban tree canopy on private property.
Is participation mandatory?
We do ask at minimum that you allow City arborists to attend your property and inspect your tree so we can assess its health. You may opt to join us during the assessment and ask questions about trees and tree care, complete a survey, or have us simply complete our assessment.
Will the City need access to my private property?
Yes. The trees we are assessing have all been planted on private property and in order to conduct a thorough assessment we will require access to your property for 5-10 minutes.
How long will the inspection take?
A typical inspection will only require five to 10 minutes. If you wish to ask us any questions about trees and tree care, we are more than happy to spend additional time answering them.
What happens during the inspection?
A City arborist will assess overall tree health by inspecting the canopy, trunk and root flare. We will assess the tree’s location in relation to hardscape and buildings as well as its viability as long-term urban tree canopy.
We can answer any questions on trees and tree care you may have, and we will provide a survey where residents can provide feedback on their experiences with, and opinions of, trees in the urban environment.
What kinds of data will you be collecting?
Tree health, height and caliper, form and structure, growing environment (soil quality and soil volume), location, future issues, viability long-term, and mature canopy spread.
What happens if the tree in question has died/was removed?
Part of our reasoning for doing this replacement tree inventory is to see how newly planted trees are faring in our urban environment. We know tree mortality is to be expected, but that data will also be important to collect as we look to improve our results with tree planting.
If the dead or dying tree is still in the ground, we can potentially assess why the tree was unsuccessful – maybe the species is not tolerant of our warmer, drier summers, the location was unsuitable, etc.
Any and all data will help us improve our processes.
Will the City provide funding if a tree needs to be replaced?
The City will not be providing funding if a tree needs to be replaced. However, we are working on developing a tree planting incentive program which we hope will increase the voluntary planting of trees on private property.
How will the compiled data be used?
After compiling data, we will assign each assessed tree with a rating ranging from excellent to dead/removed based on its health and other factors. We can use this data to update our replacement tree GIS layer to inform the public and mayor and council on the actual state of replacement trees in the city and use this data to instruct how we improve our processes and policies including our Tree Bylaw.
How did the City get my contact information?
The trees we are inspecting were planted as a condition of an issued tree cutting permit. Your contact information was included in the application for the tree permit, and we are using that information to send emails or letters to past permit holders.
Will my personal information remain confidential?
Yes. We will not use any of your information – address, name, email – aside from initially contacting you and performing the tree inspection on your property. Responses provided through the survey are anonymous.
Will I be fined/penalized if the tree is unhealthy or missing?
Our intention is to collect data so we can be more successful with planting and growing trees on private property.
If the replacement tree is unhealthy, we are eager to know why it has struggled; if the tree is missing/removed we are eager to hear why.
This is a data collection initiative and we are not intending to issue fines or penalties where trees have been removed.
I have more questions about this project...
