Growing our urban forest

The City is committed to growing our urban forest by increasing tree canopy cover on private and City-owned land over future decades. 

Urban forest project

The City is developing an urban forest strategy to help increase tree canopy cover on private and City-owned land over future decades. The strategy will set a clear direction for the City and the community to follow, ensuring greener neighbourhoods for the future.

Why do we need a strategy?

• Over the last five years, tree canopy cover has fallen by nearly 1 million m². Two-thirds of this loss has occurred on residential land, mostly as a result of development
• Although the City plants 10,000 new trees each year, this is not enough to replace the canopy being lost
• If we do not act now, canopy cover will be reduced by up to 50 per cent in suburbs with high rates of development
• An urban forest strategy will help us to develop solutions to slow down canopy loss and increase the number of new trees being planted.

Based on the community consultation outcomes, a draft urban forest strategy will be developed and presented to Council for further consideration.

Your Say Stirling

Free trees for residents

The free tree program is taking a short break over the summer months. To hear about the plant and tree giveaways planned for 2019, subscribe the the Living Green Newsletter here.

Mapping canopy cover

The City has been mapping and monitoring tree canopy cover for the past six years which has helped develop the Urban Forest Project. Using high-resolution airborne multispectral imagery, a canopy area is analysed to calculate changes to 'significant canopy'. Significant canopy is defined as tree canopy cover that's taller than three metres and has an area larger than 20m².

To increase urban canopy cover, the City's Council set a target of an average of 18 per cent canopy cover across the City by 2030.

What have we learnt?

• Extensive mapping and monitoring indicates the City has 12.4 per cent average tree canopy cover across all land types
• Mapping and monitoring reveal canopy loss rates have increased over the past five- year period with a combined total of over 1 million m² of tree canopy lost
• 68 per cent loss from residential land and 12 per cent loss from verges.