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

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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.