Page 1350 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 June 2020
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Where Should All the Trees Go, a report published by 202020 Vision in 2013 and updated in 2017, found canopy coverage in urban areas had declined in almost every state. Here in the ACT, despite a Greens-Labor government which is supposed to care for the environment, we are losing trees. The report indicates that tree canopy dropped by over 10 per cent between 2009 and 2017. Over the same period, hard surface area increased by 2.2 per cent to 7.4 per cent. It would come as no surprise if, since 2017, these figures have both continued to move in the wrong direction.
The recent Nature in the City report by the Assembly’s Standing Committee on Environment and Transport and City Services attracted a number of submissions from universities, conservation groups, landscape architects and concerned Canberrans. Among the recommendations were several specifically related to trees. The committee has called for the ACT government to prioritise public tree canopy; to identify and prioritise the identification of nature corridors; to review the viability and appropriateness of tree species that are less adaptable to climate change; to review the Tree Protection Act 2005 to ensure that it is doing what it was intended to do; and to work more closely with Landcare and similar groups.
The Woodlands and Wetlands Trust submitted:
One of the oft-quoted aspects about living in Canberra is the proximity in the urban areas to nature reserves, parks and green areas. It is this consideration for many people that defines Canberra as the “bush capital” and goes to the heart of what differentiates Canberra from other major cities.
Landcare ACT argued that Canberra Nature Park is integral to Canberra, as the “bush capital”, and called for the significance of the park to be recognised. The Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment advised the committee of research showing that urban green space contributes to increased social cohesion. The Australian Institute of Landscape Architects similarly noted:
To the casual observer, the loss of vegetation across the city is apparent. Even on the large blocks of the inner south, enormous buildings, large paved surfaces, tennis courts with concrete bases, other hard surfaces are creating heat islands. Large trees are disappearing, but the space that these large trees used to inhabit are being built over with paved surfaces.
Other witnesses to the inquiry highlighted the fact that the ACT was losing more trees than it was planting. The government’s response in late April was to announce funding to plant 4,000 trees in Canberra across 87 suburbs.
Turning to my own electorate, the Inner South Canberra Community Council, the ISCCC, which represents a number of residents’ groups, conducted a survey recently, and their members identified that losing main street trees and verges were their greatest concerns about where they lived. Any visitor to Canberra can confirm what was observed by the committee inquiry—that under this ACT Labor government we are losing more trees each year. We have trees under stress from the drought and, for many, the rescue plan proposed by the government only a couple of months ago, after the heat of summer, will be too little, too late. The 4,000 trees announced by the
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