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Staff Feature – Meet the Green Infrastructure program and its amazing staff!

November 15, 2022

The Green Infrastructure program is one of three programs under the Ecosystem and Climate Change Team.

The Ecosystem and Climate Change team is just one of four functional teams that make up the Watershed Planning and Ecosystem Science (WPES) business unit, led by Laura Del Giudice, which operates out of the Development and Engineering Services Division.

Our Role

Staff in the Green Infrastructure program are dedicated to contributing the best applied science and data on green infrastructure into internal plans, policies, and programs, as well as those of our partners. This work positions TRCA to be at the forefront of science-based knowledge generation and decision-making about watersheds and ecosystems.

The Green Infrastructure program focuses on:

  • Urban forestry studies, strategies, and canopy cover assessments
  • Natural asset management planning
  • Green infrastructure levels of service, access to greenspace, ecosystem services, and valuation assessments
  • Green infrastructure inventories

TRCA continues to build partnerships with municipalities and other partners and offer our expertise to evaluate urban forests and other forms of green infrastructure.

It has been an incredibly busy year for the team, working on numerous projects. One example of this work is our partnership with Region of Peel and Credit Valley Conservation (CVC) to complete a green natural infrastructure inventory and condition assessment.

In 2022, three field teams completed an inventory of the individual trees and tree and shrub clusters (such as forests, hedges, and clumps) that fall into the regional road rights-of-way. Field teams collected data on tree species, size, and health, as well as on invasive plants, pests, and tree diseases.

The data collected will support regional asset management planning as well as urban forest health and maintenance objectives.

Meet the Team!

Under the guidance of:

Noah Gaetz, Senior Manager, Ecosystem and Climate Science

The Green Infrastructure team members are:

Aidin Akbari, Analyst

Krishna Selvakumar, Coordinator

Michelle Sawka, Senior Research Scientist

Tracy Timmins, Research Analyst

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For more information, please reach out to the team members listed above or email wpes@trca.ca