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Street Tree Planting and Boulevarding in Winnipeg' 



George Champion, Superintendent of Parks, Winnipeg 



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THERE is nothing which tends more 

 to Deautify the general appearance 

 of a city, to impress its visitors, to 

 add to its healthfulness, and to inspire 

 its residents with a desire to improve and 

 beautify their own homes and surround- 

 ings, than that of streets bordered with 

 well kept lawns, and uniformly planted 

 with clean and healthy trees. 



In many eastern cities, different sys- 

 tems of boulevarding, tree planting and 

 maintenance are in operation more or 

 less successfully but in very few is the 

 system comprehensive or general, and it 

 is this point that I particularly wish to 

 emphasize as upon its general appli- 

 cation over the entire city depends its 

 success. 



This paper is not an academic treatise 

 on how to construct a boulevard, or how 

 and when to plant street trees, or even 

 what trees you should plant, as I think 

 these points are usually best determined 

 by local conditions, but just a few facts 

 about what has been accomplished by 

 the Parks Board of Winnipeg, in their 

 efforts to improve and beautify the gen- 

 eral appearance of the city streets. 



The term "boulevard," as it is gener- 

 ally used, denotes a drive' or parkway, 



*A part of a paper read at the eleventh an- 

 nual convention of the American Association of 

 Park Superintendents, held at Seattle, Wash., 

 last August. 



margined with grass and trees, and is 

 usually constructed and maintained in 

 its entirety by the park authorities, for 

 the use of light traffic only. In Winni- 

 peg, the term is applied to the strip of 

 lawn and trees which every paved street 

 in the city has. 



Our streets are wide, sixty-six feet or 

 more, and, with the exception of the 

 main business streets, are all constructed 

 with a space betweeen the sidewalk and 

 curb varying in width from six to twenty 

 four feet, the width on an average being 

 fourteen feet on each side. It is this 

 strip that is parked and planted with 

 trees. The sidewalk is built next the 

 property line, and with the roadway and 

 curbing, is constructed by the city en- 

 gineer's department. 



When a» street is paved, the property 

 owners on it usually petition the city 

 council at once for boulevarding and 

 tree planting. If, however, they fail 

 to do this, the council take the initiative, 

 and advertise for thirty days their in- 

 tention to carry out such local improve- 

 ments, and, at the expiration of this 

 term, if no adverse petition is received, 

 a by-law is passed placing the control 

 of the boulevarding and tree planting in 

 the hands of the public parks board. 

 This control includes any and all trees 

 already growing on the streets mentioned 



In the by-law, no matter by whom 

 planted. 



All expenditures on the boulevards are 

 charged by the parks board to the city 

 council, and by them assessed against 

 the property owners, payment for con- 

 struction being spread over a period of 

 seven years, with interest at five per 

 cent., sinking fund at four per cent. Pay- 

 ment for the cost of tree planting is col- 

 lected in one year, and the cost of main- 

 tenance is asses sea annually, this being 

 authorized by special by-law. 



This sytem was originated and work- 

 td on a small scale in 1896 by the board 

 of works bf the city council. In 1898, 

 the maintenance of the boulevards was 

 turned over to the parks board, and in 

 1900 the construction, tree planting, and 

 sole control of the system. Since then, 

 it has, like the city grown very rapidly. 



At the end of 1908, we had approxi- 

 mately eighty-six miles of boulevards, 

 planted with 20,000 trees, about 6,000 

 of these being planted by property own- 

 ers before the streets were paved. 



Prior to 1904, all new boulevards were 

 sodded, but since then, more and more 

 seeding has been done, till now prac- 

 tically all are seeded, it being conclusive- 

 ly proved that seeding, in spite of the 

 adverse conditions prevailing on a public 

 street, makes a much better and cleaner 



Wellington Crescent Boulevard, one of the many Bcantiful Streets of Winnipeg 



