More than 30,000 significant trees have been cut down in Surrey over the past three years after a tough new tree protection bylaw came into force.

Despite the strict legislation, the rate of tree cutting slightly exceeds the pace before the bylaw was passed by city council – an increase critics attribute to poor implementation of the rules.

The Leader reported in 2005 the city had issued permits for removing an average of 9,100 trees for each of the four years prior. In 2005, as a bylaw was being drafted, that number jumped to 10,900. Then-Coun. Dianne Watts called several areas of the city a “moonscape” because of the massive tree loss.

After a huge public outcry, the tree protection bylaw was enacted in 2006.

However, the number of trees cut annually continues at the same rate, with 33,300 bylaw-protected trees coming down in the last three years (2006-08) – or 11,100 annually (22 per cent higher than in years prior to the bylaw).

In total, between 2001 and 2008, about 70,000 trees that meet the criteria for bylaw protection were cut down in Surrey.

Mayor Watts said Monday she’s taken aback by the recent number.

“I find that surprising,” Watts said.

“I know we have absolutely shifted the way we do business. I think part of that could be the opening of the Grandview Corners (24 Avenue and 160 Street) and Grandview (residential) area,” Watts said, adding the clearcuts of old have come to an end.

The city is also falling short of its required two-for-one replacement of the trees, as required by law. For the past three years, just over 1.3 trees have been planted for each one brought down.

The bylaw also has a provision for developments where the two-for-one replacement can’t be met. In those situations, a cash-in-lieu system requires a $300 fee be paid into a Green Fund for each tree that is not replaced.

According to city figures, no cash-in-lieu was charged in 2006, and in the following two years, about $200 per tree was collected – $100 short of the bylaw requirement.

Watts points out the money collected for the Green Fund goes right back into replanting trees in other areas, and city staff confirm $500,000 is allocated annually for Green Fund intiatives. As of the end of last year, there was an unspent balance of $1.9 million in the account.

However, the city also cuts down trees in its parks and other lands. Those numbers aren’t included in the cut tree figures, as the municipality doesn’t need a permit to fell trees.

That fact has some residents upset.

Rosemary Wiley lives across the street from Robson Park, near 100 Avenue and 124 Street, where the city is currently developing a play area. For that, she’s grateful.

But the huge trees that were cut down last week caused her extreme grief.

“I was horrified,” Wiley said Friday, adding she thought several of the trees could have been preserved.

Pat Young, 21, remembers “hanging out” under some of the bigger trees in the park when he was three years old.

They were felled last week.

“I was shocked,” Young said Monday, adding he feels like he’s lost a bit of his past. “There’s not much we can do about it now. That one corner of the park is levelled.”

Wiley is amazed the tree bylaw hasn’t had a bigger impact on the number of cuts.

“If the bylaw is in place, you’d think people would have to stop and think about cutting down the trees before it happens,” Wiley said.

The figures aren’t surprising to Dr. Roy Strang.

Strang, a former forestry educator, has long said the city’s bylaw is an effective document, but he had concerns about its enforcement.

He believes staff shortages at city hall make the tree bylaw difficult to enforce.

“If it were fully implemented, if there were enough bodies (staff at city hall) to pursue offenders, it would work fine,” said Strang, who reviewed the bylaw before it was passed when he was on the Environmental Advisory Committee (EAC).

“There’s nothing wrong with the regulations,” Strang said. “It’s the implementation which is at fault.”

He said meaningful change will have to come from the political level.

“We have the council say to their staff, ‘look, we mean business, and we want you to do it’, ” Strang said.

Al Schultze, chair of the city’s Environmental Advisory Committee, said he had an examination of the 2006 tree bylaw on his to-do list for the committee.

“Obviously how it’s been implemented is going to be very important,” Schultze said.

He expects it will be on the EAC agenda in the coming months.

kdiakiw@surreyleader.com