The east coast is still recovering after Hurricane Fiona made landfall in Nova Scotia Sept. 24.

Climate change specialist Nancy Anningson is a member of the Environment and Climate Change team at Halifax. Her expertise focuses on building community resilience in the face of climate change impacts, as well as identifying nature-based solutions to help the HRM be more prepared in the face of climate change.

"Halifax as a municipality was a bit more fortunate than we have been with some past hurricanes and post-tropical storms, at the expense of our colleagues in places like Pictou County and Sydney and Newfoundland. With climate change, what we're seeing is that extreme weather events are happening more frequently, and they are more extreme in their nature as individual incidents."

Anningson said she predicts upcoming weather events will be "more powerful."

"They're getting up here quicker, we're also seeing a lot more and more severe nor'easters during the winter months."

She anticipates extreme heat will be a problem in the coming years, among other environmental changes.

"This past season it was an extremely hot and dry summer. People's wells were drier this year, and wildfires are something we need to be concerned about."

Anningson said all the environmental changes taking place are also affecting the wildlife in the area, such as the noticeable increase in invasive species in pests, which can cause health concerns.

Last week, Halifax announced a pilot project giving out 1,000 trees to support residential property owners to be able to plant trees, as trees help manage water flow, deal with flooding, clean the air, and deal with greenhouse gas emissions. Around 30 per cent of the trees given out are edible fruit trees.

"We need those mature trees to help us mitigate climate change and to help protect us from the impacts of climate change. One of the worst things that I witnessed during Fiona was that trees were down everywhere."

Halifax landscape architect Stephen Cushing and Nancy Anningson are marking out spaces for some trees, bushes, plants and fruit trees that are going to be planted at the Common Roots Urban Farm later this month. The farm will be doing several events later this month and early in November. Photo contributed.

She said her team has acquired a refrigerated truck with their funding, that can be used in communities when the power is out and are waiting for its arrival.

"We're looking at our rec centers and other urban centers to see what resources they have for community members, as well as developing some resources that will help people be better prepared for storms and extreme weather events. Then we're looking at our critical infrastructure and how to make sure we've retrofitted and helped support residents in making their buildings and infrastructure more resilient to climate change impacts."

The next 500 tree giveaway event is taking place on Saturday, Oct. 8 at 26 Cherry Brook Rd.

Listen to the full interview below: