Matthew Higginson's posts

With your support, encouragement, and on the ground efforts we've been voted Toronto’s Best Activist Organization in Now Magazine for the past two years. Once again, we are amongst some amazing nominees, but we want you to help us defend the title!

We arrive in Chicago by plane, excited to touch down in a place that is as well known for its open lakeshore as it is for its historic architecture. The city wears history on its sleeve; the windy home Kanye West and Al Capone; the site of Harrison Ford’s green river chase and Matthew Broderick's teen-angst parade. But all stories aside, Natalie and I are about to discover it for ourselves.

The heavy afternoon rain offered our urban forest a brief reprieve from the drought we’ve sweltered in this summer – which is good news for the pears, plums, apricots, and apples that are coming into season. We often talk about the urban forest for its benefits – cleaner air, cooler streets, safer communities…. But did you know Toronto is also an urban food basket?

I have my suspicions about the way LEAF Tree Tours became a reality six years ago. The simple act of eye contact can go miles in a city. Heads are down. People are accustomed to the rush. If you make that contact, add a smile, maybe a chance to take a stroll and learn something new… you might just have a tool for community building.

It is a big day for your tree. All of the hard working leaves, branches and needles that make our neighbourhoods, parks, and cities complete can tell us a little more about themselves. And that’s because today we, along with Ryerson University launched the Ontario Residential Tree Benefits Estimator.