Laval city council has voted to pay Urbex Construction $276,405 to replace doomed ash trees on city property.
The ash trees are expected to fall victim this summer to an invasive insect, the Emerald Ash Borer.
Urbex will start planting in mid-August, in the hope of avoiding the worst of the sweltering summer heat.
Council invested the funds to restore the tree canopy that provides a natural form of air conditioning that prevents developed areas of the city from developing heat sinks.
The contract calls for Urbex to plant 487 large trees at least 50 mm in diameter, as well as another 150 potted trees at least 200 mm tall.
No ash trees will be felled until after Oct. 1, once the Emerald Ash Borers begin to die off as winter temperatures approach.
“We intend to replace the [ash] trees with more than 50 different species, in order to promote biodiversity, in order to prevent a recurrence of pest problems caused by insects and disease,” city spokeswoman Valérie Sauvé told The Suburban.
“Ideally, we aim to ensure that no one species exceeds 10 percent of the whole [canopy replacement project],” she said in an electronic mail reply to the newspaper’s queries.
