City needs big tree change

Please see below great articles in this weeks  Stirling Times (15th of March, 2016).

If you would like to see existing trees protected,  you must let City of Stirling Councillors and your local MP know.  If you would like to write a letter to the Editor of the Stirling Times in response to these articles email stirlingtimes@communitynews.com.au 

Please try and come to tonight’s Council Meeting at 7pm , see the Agenda (15/03/16), see more at the bottom.

The front cover;

Capture

 

 

 

Then on Page 3;

Canopy Loss the heat is on - Stirling Times 15 03 16 p3

Here is the “Deputation” refereed to in the article above.

Also on page 3 Cheaper to keep trees than remove them, says planner;

Cheaper to keep trees says planner Stirling Times 15 03 16

and Page 9;

Editoral Stirling Times 15 03 16 p9

It looks like Councillor may vote for Option 2 recommended by officers (see the the report with the four Options laid out in the 8th of March Committee Meeting Agenda), that would still allow tree removal and would never be able to reach the target of 18% by 2030.

We would rather Option 4, but with modern imaging technology it is not necessary to spend $500,000 to create a “Significant Tree Register”?  The City already has imaging data, they just need experts to use that data to create a register of all trees? That really needs to be looked into.  The definition of “Tree” is anything over 3mt.  We need to save more than “Significant Trees” to get to 18%?

FYI, “After Victoria lost 274 lives in the 2009 heatwave, the City of Melbourne resolved to set their tree canopy cover target, from its current 22%, up to 40% by 2040, because they worked out, that urban canopies only start to significantly cool at 30%”, according to Prof Greg Moore at Melbourne University.

Council Meeting tonight

So please come to the Council Meeting tonight and ask up to 3 questions.   If you want to ask questions, print 2 copies (one to hand in and one to read from).  You will need to arrive about 10 minutes before the meeting starts to lodge your questions.

If you can’t make it to the meeting, you can email your questions before 12pm – stirling@stirling.wa.gov.au.  In the subject line put ” Question for Council Meeting 15/03/16″. An officer will read your questions out at the meeting for you.

It is far more powerful if you can make it in person.

We are going to need large numbers of people emailing, phoning and coming to meetings to help shape an effective and comprehensive tree protection policy.

Please share posts on our Facebook page and Twitter @StirlingTrees

( Hashtag suggestions for twitter #urbanforest #urbanheat #heatwave #resilience #perthnews #CityofStirling #WALGA #WAPC)

3 thoughts on “City needs big tree change

  1. trees control our climate. No trees no life. Let us protect existing trees and let us plant trees…and protect them.
    Rainer

  2. I live in Stirling. I think this is an important issue in regards to maintaining and also increasing tree cover. There is some interesting research coming out of Melbourne University to support more tree cover/urban canopies. I hope the council is forward thinking in their decisions tonight.

    • Yes, according to Professor Gregory Moore, Melbourne has 22% canopy cover, but they have set a target of 40% by 2040, because they have worked out that to get significant cooling benefits you need 30% canopy cover.

      We only have an average of 12.7% in the City of Stirling. Some suburbs are around 19% and some as low as 8%. What is needed is urgent tree protection. Nothing less will enable them to get to 18% by 2030.

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