But under the proposed changes to the city's official plan, they'll lose that exemption, meaning homeowners who want to install a pool will need to go to the local committee of adjustment and request what's known as a minor variance. That's an expensive, risky process, according to urban planner Sean Galbraith of Sean Galbraith and Associates. Most homeowners will need to hire a professional planner to appear on their behalf at the committee, which he estimates will cost $6,000 to $8,000.
Eric Davies, a forest ecologist at the University of Toronto, led a group of undergraduate students in the university's foresters club as they gathered about six litres of acorns from a tree in Queen's Park North, one of four remaining large White Oaks in the park. White Oaks, a common deciduous tree species in North America, are the largest and oldest trees in the green spaces outside the Ontario Legislature. "This tree in particular is one of the oldest remaining white oaks at Queens Park," Davies said said, pointing to a massive tree behind him. "It's a beautiful long-lived tree."
When it rains, New York City's natural areas-made up of forests, wetlands, and grasslands-play a crucial role in keeping sewers from overflowing by soaking up 17 percent of the city's stormwater, a new report by the Natural Areas Conservancy (NAC) finds. The report reveals that this natural landscape, which makes up a third of the Big Apple's more than 30,000 acres of parkland, soaks up twice the amount of storm water on a per unit basis when compared to other forms of green infrastructure like rain gardens.
On a recent morning, as the late August sun began to beat down, a few dozen New Yorkers stood in the shade of one of the nearly 500 trees adorning Harlem's Marcus Garvey Park, worrying a bit about hurting its feelings. We had already identified the species bald cypress thanks to its feathered leaves and strong pyramidal shape, measured its trunk's circumference (17in; 43cm), and noted that its roots appeared normal, its leaves were healthy and its branches had suffered some damage from improper pruning.
