Great feature article by Emma Young in WAtoday – Research reveals Perth’s hottest real estate… in terms of tree cover
This article prompted ABC 720 to do and interview on the same day. Di Darmody interviewed Paul Barber at 1.05pm (and then took callers) the whole segment went for 38 minutes. Many people called in with concerns about tree removal all over Perth.
One man phoned in and said that a quite a few trees had been removed from the Trigg car park.
Dr George Crisp also spoke about the effects of urban heat stress and pointed out that it is not just the elderly that are at risk, but also children and other groups as well.
Let’s hope the public start getting the message and start doing their bit to protect trees on private land and that the State Government do something about tree protection laws ASAP.
It is becoming increasingly difficult for Councils to do anything much apart from plant trees with the State Government’s planning laws, as most trees are coming off privately owned land.
This is a public health issue not just a conservation issue.
Please note, the figures in the graph in this article are not quite accurate or current though? It shows Stirling at about 15% it is less than 10.6% according to their last annual report? So one could assume that other areas have gone down too?
Many councils still don’t monitor their urban canopy loss.
Planting lots of new trees is not an excuse for removing healthy shade trees. We have to learn to incorporate existing trees in new developments and plant more trees.
It is the density of the entire canopy of a shire that counts, not the number of trees that have been recently planted? Urban heat is an issue now, not a future threat. Also, it must be acknowledged that, whether a new tree will provide benefits in years or decades to come depends on the species and the size and health of its canopy. Many new trees don’t actually survive.
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