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1:32 am
January 5, 2010
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marea
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All those who have noticed the increasing number of stressed trees in Canberra may be interested in the current investigation into the Government's tree management practices and the renewal of Canberra's urban forest.
If you want to be informed about consultations during the investigation, you need to register with the Office of the Commissioner for Sustainability and Environment by 22 January 2010. Then any submissions responding to the terms of reference are due by 26 February 2010. You can register and also find the terms of reference for the investigation at http://www.envcomm.act.gov.au
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11:34 pm
February 21, 2010
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marea
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The deadline for public submissions for this investigation has been extended to 12 March.
The community forums in the past couple of weeks have been an eye-opener. Apparently, Canberra's urban forest is made up of over one million trees, of which 630,000 are managed by the ACT Government, the largest urban forest in Australia managed by one government agency. Most of the trees were planted either before 1930 (deciduous and evergreen), or between 1955 and 1975 (mainly eucalypts and hardy natives). Many are now reaching the end of their life simultaneously, and this is coinciding with the stress they are experiencing through drought.
Just to give an example of one suburb, Deakin, the ACT Government representative said that about 11% of its trees are in poor shape, 1% are in very poor shape and 1% are dead. The situation in Narrabundah seems to be worse, with a far greater proportion of "very mature" trees.
Apparently, 18,500 dead and dangerous trees were removed over the last six years, and only limited replacement occurred. It costs about $3000-4000 to remove a tree and about $300 to plant a tree, so if we are heading into a major urban forest renewal program, I figure there'll probably be a need for a significant funding boost, as well as extensive ongoing public consultation.
But I think we should be trying to save as many viable trees in the meantime. I found a leaflet tucked away on the TAMS website that encourages Canberrans to give their street tree a feed with non-potable water, but I think a lot of people are under the impression that we shouldn't be watering anything on our nature strip. It would be a good idea to have a public communication program about this.
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9:51 am
July 15, 2010
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marea
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You can find a report on the February community forums on the website of the ACT Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment.
Since then the Commissioner has run a couple of Strategic Communications workshops in May-June to explore effective communication strategies on urban forest issues, such as the type of information people expect on tree management, when communities and residents expect to be involved in decision making, opportunities for community involvement and at what level, and resource implications.
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10:29 am
July 15, 2010
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marea
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| Member | posts 210 | |
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Professor Peter Kanowski put forward interesting perspectives on Canberra's urban forest management and renewal when he delivered the Lindsay Pryor Memorial Lecture at ANU on 14 July 2010.
He highlighted that Canberra's 630,000 trees on public land provide an estimated $15 million of value in ecosystem services each year (carbon sequestration, energy saving, stormwater management etc) and unpriced biodiversity and aesthetics.
He proposed some possible goals/principles for the future management and renewal of the urban forest, including:
1. Maintain and enhance the landscape character, whilst acknowledging that change is necessary in response to experience, climate change, and urban densification etc
2. Build on community understanding and support – there are examples of how this can be done such as Australia's Landcare program and Tree Keepers programs overseas.
3. Build a greater level of certainty through formal planning eg public landscape masterplans for each precinct/street.
4. Negotiate management and renewal plans, informed by risk and cost estimates.
5. Implement plans in partnership with the community
6. Generate and commit adequate and ongoing funding over the trees' lifecycle (ie this would entail a budget 7-10 times more than the current annual budget).
On the last point about the budget, he gave a few options for raising this very significant addition to the budget:
- A new green infrastructure levy on rates for Canberra residents
- Increase the allocation from existing energy/water income streams to green infrastructure
- A "Greenfleet" like levy on vehicle registrations
- Seek a Centenary of Canberra endowment from the Commonwealth Government to maintain and enhance the national capital's character.
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10:43 am
July 15, 2010
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marea
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Also on 14 July, The Sustainability and Environment Commissioner, Maxine Cooper, gave a presentation to the local Sustainability Network on the urban forest investigation.
Besides mentioning the community forums and strategic communication workshops, she said that she had commissioned papers on remnant trees, reuse of timber, and solar access. It sounded like it would take a while longer for all associated work to be completed, possibly by August?
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2:27 am
September 14, 2010
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admin
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The Government has agreed to all seven recommendations in the Sustainability and Environment Commissioner's report on the Dangerous and Hazardous Tree Program.
Amongst the agreed actions is that when a street tree needs to be removed, a standard notification letter/card will be delivered to the closest three residents on both sides of the
street prior to removal, i.e the property adjacent to the verge where the tree will be
removed, two properties either side of this one and three properties opposite.
To find out more, go to the report at http://www.envcomm.act.gov.au/
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2:40 am
September 14, 2010
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admin
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Post edited 7:51 am – September 14, 2010 by admin
Post edited 7:52 am – September 14, 2010 by admin
The ACT Sustainability and Environment Commissioner has released two reports and is seeking any comments by 24 September 2010.
One report is on Solar Access. It suggests a number of actions to try to minimise potential conflicts between the amenity provided by trees and solar panels, for example:
- Including solar access as an issue to be addressed in Government policy on tree management;
- Government working with industry, professional bodies and solar panel installers to provide adequate training to ensure panels are not installed in positions that are likely to be overshadowed by trees;
- Requiring solar installers to undertake some kind of landscape assessment before deciding where to install the solar panels.
To find out about other suggested actions, see the report here.
The other report is on Sustainable Re-Use of Timber from Felled Urban Trees in the ACT. It makes five recommendations, including:
- That the ACT Government should consider calling for tenders to operate a power station fired by woody bio-mass;
- That the Government form a list of interested portable sawmillers who may be interested in taking small quantities of high value sawlogs from selected felled trees;
- That the Government consider gaining certification for the urban forest which would provide a guarantee that it is being maintained in a sustainable manner.
See the other recommendations and the full report here.
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9:37 pm
November 19, 2010
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marea
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| Member | posts 210 | |
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The National Capital Authority is planning to remove and replace a large number of trees on national land and is inviting comments until 26 November 2010. Check out the details here.
A few months ago Gary Rake, head of the NCA, did a walk-through and briefing on the trees to be removed along Dunrossil Drive in Yarralumla and it was clear that a lot of the trees slated for removal are dead or on their last legs.
I haven't been on a similar walk-through with NCA in Stirling Park, but on other walks of my own through there have seen that there are quite a few dead pine trees needing removal.
The NCA approach of showing people the actual trees to be removed, and explaining why, is a good way of engaging the community.
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12:34 am
June 9, 2011
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marea
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| Member | posts 210 | |
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In case you have not already seen it, climateXchange recently prepared an article providing an update on the current state of play with the Environment and Sustainability Commissioner's investigation.
Essentially, she has submitted her final report to the ACT Government and it's now over to the ACT Government to respond.
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