Page 4367 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 25 October 2017
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I am pleased that the two directorates that share responsibility for the management of the urban forest are working cooperatively to further develop the policy objectives in a well-considered manner. There are many examples of this. It includes EPSDD and TCCS collaborating on the development of a living infrastructure strategy.
At the heart of the strategy is the concept that trees are indeed a living part of the fabric of our city and provide a significant contribution to a wide range of sustainability objectives, including clean air, cooling in summer, rainfall detection, amenity and beauty, and habitat for wildlife. As has been noted, this strategy is a key action in the government’s climate change adaptation strategy, which also takes a cross-government approach to ensuring that the ACT is able to respond to a changing climate in a considered and well-managed way over the short, medium and long term.
The government recognises the need to maintain and ultimately increase the canopy cover of our urban forest. TCCS has access to high quality remote-sensing data that enables canopy cover to be mapped and analysed with a high degree of accuracy. This data can be combined with information about active travel routes, outdoor recreation areas and other key components of our city that would most benefit from an increase in canopy cover. This creates a powerful tool that will enable additional plantings to be targeted and be of maximum benefit. Meanwhile, the government has continued to support the management of the existing urban forest through ongoing funding for the urban treescapes team.
In September this year I was pleased to launch the better suburbs initiative, which will, importantly, firstly seek community views from across all sectors of our community to determine the relative priorities with regard to the delivery of city services, which will then be used to inform a better suburbs statement next year. This is very exciting, and I am even more excited about the second phase of this project, which will seek to address some of our more long-term and challenging urban issues. One of these is managing our urban tree canopy, especially on private land, and implementing a strategy to balance the needs of a denser, growing and more prosperous city with the need to maintain the health and amenity of the treed landscape.
I am pleased to support most of Ms Le Couteur’s motion but I move:
Omit all words after “That this Assembly”, substitute:
“(1) notes that:
(a) Canberra’s urban areas include over 750 000 ACT Government-managed trees, which are highly valued by the Canberra community for the many benefits they bring;
(b) trees ameliorate urban temperatures in summer and reduce the heat island effect—for example, the temperature difference between pavements in sun and shade can be over 12oC;
(c) the importance of trees and other ‘living infrastructure’ for managing the heat island effect is recognised in the ACT Climate Change Adaptation Strategy;
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