By Jacklyn Jolicoeur and Ryan Senechal

Garry Oak species classification within urban forest canopy analysis: a collaboration between GOMPS, UBC's Master of Geomatics For Environmental Management, and Terra Remote Sensing

Project Origins
Garry Oak Meadow Preservation Society has set out to develop a new approach to urban forest monitoring using remote sensing technologies. The Greater Victoria Area is situated in some of the highest remaining concentrations of Garry oak trees and Garry oak and associated ecosystems, and the critically endangered Garry oak ecosystem is facing intensifying land use development pressure. Measuring change in historic Garry oak ecosystem presence and the sharp decline of its extent over time was captured in Historical Garry oak ecosystems of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, pre-European contact to the present (Ted Lea, 2006), but at a very large scale that presents challenges to interpret and apply at the local scale to understand Garry oak ecosystem health and extent. 
Garry Oak Mapping in the Capital Region
Garry oak-specific mapping has not been updated since the production of Ted Lea's 2006 publication, but urban forest canopy measuring and monitoring has gradually come online thanks to early efforts spearheaded by Habitat Acquisition Trust to measure land cover classification at the regional scale, and later with multiple local governments adopting urban tree canopy analysis within the Capital Regional District. GOMPS identified a gap in urban forest measuring approach and recognized that providing Garry oak-specific analysis would inform better overall urban forest decision making and outcomes. 

Fielding Interest and Research
In 2023, GOMPS began exploring the body of research on remote sensing approaches to classify individual tree species, and consulted with experts in remote sensing in academic, non-profit, government, and commercial organizations to develop a project scope with the greatest potential for accuracy, repeatability, and ultimately adoption by local government urban forest managers. We learned that while species classification was a capacity that was growing in commercial forestry applications, it remained largely absent from urban forest canopy analysis, and Garry oak species classification had not been conducted in academic or commercial applications. Recognizing the importance of a high-accuracy Garry oak-specific lens to support better urban forest stewardship decision making across the region, there was awareness that GOMPS would be the ideal organization to fundraise, activate, and lead the research and development of this tool. 

Study Area
The study area selected was City of Victoria and a portion of District of Saanich defined as the urban containment boundary. The area selected was targeted intentionally for several purposes, including the strength of existing urban forest management policies and availability of existing urban forest analysis products, for example, a public tree inventory (City of Victoria), and multiple years of urban forest canopy analysis using LiDAR (City of Victoria, District of Saanich). Both City of Victoria and District of Saanich had the greatest commitment and available resources to conduct ongoing measuring and monitoring of the urban forest, and are facing enormous urban development pressure with Provincial legislation adopted in 2023 (e.g., the Housing Supply Act, Housing Statutes (Residential Development) Amendment Act, etc.). Both communities have urban forests which are situated disproportionately on private property (e.g., 75% of City of Victoria's and 72% of District of Saanich's urban forest are on private lands), indicating high exposure of Garry oak loss to private land use development and low capacity for those communities to offset those losses on public property. GOMPS' narrowed the survey for this initial proof of concept project based on the high cost of imagery/LiDAR acquisition with hopes that this project can be replicated in the near future to incorporate other municipalities in the Capital Regional District and beyond.

Project Launch
Shortly after the Board's approval of the project in late 2024 and GOMPS receiving a generous donation to enable the acquisition of aerial imagery/LiDAR, a remote sensing contractor was selected in late 2024 who satisfied the technical capacity required for the project. Shortly before the flight to acquire the raw imagery and LiDAR of the study area, news of our official connection to UBC's MGEM program came with two students (Kate McIntyre and Jason Wu) being assigned to the research and development of the species classification tool for their capstone projects. The project technical capacity within GOMPS is provided by its Board President, Ryan Senechal, an urban forest professional and educator based in Saanich. Ryan's work as Lecturer of Urban Forestry at UBC's Faculty of Forestry connected him globally to urban forest remote sensing research and case study, and to researchers and experts in environmental geomatics within the Faculty. 

Data Acquisition
Terra Remote Sensing based in Sidney, BC, contracted two flights at 900 m flight level midday in late June of 2025 near the summer equinox, and this timing was intended to capture Garry oaks in full early summer foliage while minimizing shadows on aerial imagery due to sun angle during flights. Technical specifications of the data acquired include 4 band (RGB, NIR) orthographic imagery at 10 cm resolution, and 2 mhz pulse rate LiDAR at 45 points/m2 point cloud density and a scan angle of 60 degrees (30 degrees per side). The reason we chose to acquire raw data using preferred timing and resolution was to provide ideal data quality to perform software analysis and achieve the highest possible accuracy of the tool that is delivered at completion of the project. Previously flown and acquired datasets are more cost effective but may not be ideally timed or provide the specifications we desired, for example, the near infrared spectrum of aerial imagery, which is likely to play an important role in the accuracy of species classification in the analysis phase.  

Data Analysis
The project has entered the analysis stage starting with Terra Remote Sensing's initial data cleaning, pre-classification tree height at minimum 2 m height, and an urban forest canopy analysis incorporating all species. Kate and Jason from UBC's MGEM program have been busy in their graduate course work developing knowledge and skills with geospatial, LiDAR and multi-spectral analysis and have been participating in occasional workshops with Terra Remote Sensing's technical team. The development of species classification will be completed in mid-2026 and GOMPS is excited to circulate these datasets through our website and to partner organizations and governments following accuracy assessments at the completion of this project.
Open Source Information
This project incorporates community open access as a key priority, including the distribution of our project scope and methods, datasets, key findings, and limitations. We are pleased to support Indigenous governments, organizations and governments, researchers and non-profit organizations with our obtained LiDAR and ortho products by request. For access to dataset requests and other project inquiries, please contact us.

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Watch video of flight dayWatch video of flight day

​GOMPS (Fiscal) 2024 AGM will be held:
DATE: Sunday, November 09, 2025
TIME: 1:00pm to 4:00pm
LOCATION: Banquet Room – Cedar Hill Golf Course, 1400 Derby Road
Our meeting will include:

• Presentation of various reports – President, Nursery, Treasurer and Volunteer
• Election of officers, and 
• An open discussion about Garry oak issues with a focus on future directions.

Per GOMPS bylaws, there are seven board member positions including:

• President, (for election)
• Vice President,
• Secretary, (for election)
• Treasurer, (for election) and 
• Three Directors at Large (one position up for election)

Four Director/board positions are up for election this year as three Directors continue in their 2-year terms.
Please consider joining our board, or nominating someone for a board position, by sending nominations to Judith Carder (Secretary) at [email protected] by: 
5:00pm on Friday, November 07, 2025.
In order to vote at meetings and to run for election to the board, you must have a current GOMPS membership.  
The opportunity to purchase or renew your membership will be available at the AGM.
Your attendance and input during the discussion period at our meeting will be greatly welcomed and appreciated!
Thank you for your ongoing support and participation in GOMPS!
 
 
Board of Directors
GOMPS

The Camosun Community Associations presents a free lecture in partnership with the Mount Tolmie Community Association, featuring guest speaker, Ryan Senechal.
Ryan Senechal is an educator and a practicing consulting arborist/ urban forester with experience across municipal, commercial, education and nonprofit sectors. He is a lecturer in the Bachelor of Urban Forestry and Master of Urban Forestry Leadership programs at University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Forestry. 

Speaker: Ryan Senechal
When: Wednesday, May 7th
Time: Doors open at 6:45 pm – Lecture 7-9 pm – includes Q&A
Where: Broad View United Church – 3703 St. Aidan’s St. (enter at lower level at back of church)Cookies, coffee and tea will be provided.
You may read online about Ryan to get a notion of what keeps him active locally using these links:

• Ryan Senechal is a Sessional Lecturer at UBC’s Faculty of Forestry and a practicing consulting arborist/urban forester with experience across municipal, commercial, education, and nonprofit sectors. Scroll down on this page https://forestry.ubc.ca/future-students/graduate/professional-masters-degrees/master-of-urban-forestry-leadership/meet-the-mufl-faculty/
• New housing rules in B.C. trigger fears of ‘catastrophic’ loss of urban trees https://thenarwhal.ca/bc-ndp-bill-44-urban-forests/
• Ryan Senechal: Removing Sequoia Would Violate City of Victoria Policies https://creativelyunited.org/ryan-senechal-removing-sequoia-would-violate-city-of-victoria-policies/, https://martlet.ca/community-fights-to-save-trees-set-to-be-removed-from-centennial-square/, https://creativelyunited.org/an-analysis-of-dialogs-technical-memorandum-on-the-centennial-square-sequoia-tree/
• Remote Sensing: Garry  Oak Species Detection Projecthttps://www.garryoak.info/news

Presentation by Ryan Senechal at the GOMPS AGM on November 17th, 2024

Summary

Garry Oak Meadow Preservation Society is a volunteer-run non-profit based in Saanich, BC that advocates for individual Garry oak and Garry oak ecosystem protection and stewardship. Mapping and analysis of the overall Garry oak ecosystem and individual trees in the Capital Regional District is out of date. LiDAR is a cost-effective, high accuracy method of forest analysis that enables measurements such as change to tree populations through intensifying land development. Our interest is in developing a new approach to map Garry oak species presence using LiDAR and machine learning. By conducting species specific detection analysis to form a species composition baseline, we can enable future analysis opportunities that are Garry oak and Garry oak ecosystem specific. This is an important contribution to a growing body of regional urban forest mapping that could influence changes in tree protection policies (e.g., enhanced existing tree protections and requirements for Garry oak replacement trees through private development), and management and planning for Garry oaks on public property.

Analysis

Our initial analysis goals are to perform Garry oak species detection within a minimum of a single municipality (City of Victoria) and eventually expand the method to survey all municipalities in the Capital Regional District. We hope to have located and calculated the overall Garry oak canopy area. Our goal is to offer the Garry oak mapping and high resolution raw LiDAR/ortho data flown for this project publicly. This data sharing will support researchers, community members and other nonprofit organizations with our Garry oak species analysis, and also enable additional novel data analysis approaches supporting Garry oaks and Garry oak ecosystems.

Presentation slides (.pdf)

Presentation by Carollyne Yardley at AGM November 17, 2024.

A conversation about the distribution of biodiversity within and between the City of Victoria's neighbourhoods.

To complement the City’s excellent inventory of all trees on public land, the Victoria Community Association Network (VCAN) has involved each neighbourhood in an inventory of Garry oaks and other elements of biodiversity on private property. Each neighbourhood developed their own approach and will be reporting back to residents on what they learned and what we have learned about the larger patterns within our urban forest.

The urban area of the City of Victoria is the Garry oak ecosystem (GOE)–– a fact often left out of discussions on the urban forest.  Objectives of the project include:

• to connect people, cultural connections to the territory, map current Garry oak distribution, enhance canopy equity.
• to directly benefit residents and wildlife, wildlife corridors for the movement and dispersal of organisms, and establish nodes of functioning.
• assist in protecting and restoring the function of sensitive ecosystems and natural areas, including habitat corridors and assist with the parks acquisition strategy (9.2 of the Official Community Plan). 
  ​

This project was made possible by a City of Victoria "My Great Neighbourhood Grant", the volunteers, a GIC consultant, and support letters from the Sierra Club and the Rockland Neighbourhood Association who administered the grant.

​GOMPS provided a letter of support and urban forest expertise via a walking tour for participants. 

Presenatation Slides
Presentation slides by Carollyne Yardley (.pdf) (Rockland Neighbourhood)
Printed slide deck at wrap up event by Jacklyn Jolicoeur (.pdf) (James Bay Neighbourhood)

Mapping Tutorials
VCAN Mapping Tutorial (.pdf) (Cedar Shore Consulting)
Ken Wong's Organic Maps Tutorial (.pdf) (Hillside/Quadra)

Preliminary Suitable Habitat Analysis
Preliminary statistical analysis of environmental characteristics at mapped Garry Oak Tree locations (.pdf) (Cedar Shore Consulting)

Dear Developer: An Earthly Invitation template (.pdf) (March 2025)

Final Report - VCAN Community Mapping Project (.pdf) (March 2025)

​Zoom to enlarge areas on the map. The City of Victoria Garry oak tree inventory data is noted in green. Other points represent individual trees or areas where Garry oaks exist. Please note, this is not an individual Garry oak tree count and does not represent all Garry oak trees in the City of Victoria. Neighbourhoods participating in this community building project included Burnside Gorge, Downtown, Fairfield / Gonzales, Fernwood, Hillside Quadra, James Bay, North Jubilee, South Jubilee, North Park, Oaklands, Rockland, Victoria West.

Annual General Meeting
 
GOMPS 2023-24 AGM will be held:

DATE: Sunday, November 17, 2024
TIME: 3:00 to 5:00pm
LOCATION: Banquet Room, Cedar Hill Golf Course, 1400 Derby Rd, Saanich.
 
Our meeting will include:
·      Presentation of various reports – President, Nursery, Treasurer & Volunteer
·      Election of officers, and 
·      An open discussion about Garry oak issues with focus on future directions
 
As per GOMPS bylaws, there are 7 board members’ positions including:
·      President,
·      Vice-President,
·      Secretary,
·      Treasurer, and 
·      3 Directors at Large. 
 
3 Director positions are up for election this year as 4 Directors continue in their 2-year terms and 1 Director becomes a Director Emeritus. Please consider joining our board or nominate someone for a board position by sending nominations to: Judith Carder (Secretary) at judeathome at shaw.ca by Friday, November 8th, 5:00 pm.
 
In order to vote at meetings and to run for election to the board, you must have a current GOMPS membership.  
 
The opportunity to purchase or renew your membership will be available at the AGM (cash or cheque only, at this time).
 
Your attendance and input during the discussion period at our meeting will be greatly welcomed and appreciated!

Last February 23, 2022, Dr. Erin O'Brien & Dan Baxter with the Pender Islands Conservancy picking up 40 of our Garry oak seedlings for new homes on the Pender Islands. Quoting Dr. Erin here, "Thank you and all your volunteers for all you do to help restore Garry Oak ecosystems!" 

Last December 7, 2021, Ms. Maxine Moiner and partner picked up 10 x 2 gal seedlings for new home in Errington. And so, on behalf of everyone here at the Garry Oak Meadow Preservation Society we are very grateful for your support.

We would like to extend our gratitude to Mr. Malcolm McCartney of Duncan, who is creating a Garry oak ecosystem on his property. He picked up 20 of our volunteer nursery seedlings.