About this project
Trees provide shade and beauty in our parks, streets, and gardens but they are under threat from extreme heat, drought, ageing of tree stock, and population growth. Increasing development on private land is also reducing the number of trees in Bayside and limiting opportunities for future tree growth.
Our Urban Forest Strategy is an action plan to deliver urgent, meaningful action to enhance and protect our environment and reduce the impacts of climate change. The Strategy focuses on five approaches: Increase, Healthier Ecosystems, Monitor, Maintain and Learn & Celebrate.
What we asked
Between 19 August – 26 September 2021, we asked our community to provide feedback on our draft Urban Forest Strategy via an online survey, written submission, interactive map, or through stakeholder group meetings.
We heard from 632 participants, including 534 online survey submissions, 11 written submissions, and 2 stakeholder groups. We’ve summarised feedback below, or you can read the complete report.
What you told us
Participants were supportive of the actions of the Urban Forest Strategy, and were very eager to see an increase in tree and vegetation cover within Bayside. In particular:
There was also strong support for Council to partner with key stakeholders and the community as key initiatives to support the growth of our Urban Forest together:
Participants were also very interested in how Council would use its available controls, regulations and enforcement abilities to bring the objectives of the Strategy to life.
And there was strong support to diversify our urban forest to ensure it is more climate resilient.
What we did
Community feedback has been considered to prepare the final Draft Urban Forest Strategy for Council to consider at its February 2022 meeting. Actions that received majority support have been included in the Strategy, while others were amended to align with the vision, goals and guiding principles of the Strategy.
Through the consultation, Council received specific feedback via written submissions on the drafting of the Strategy and how it holistically considers all components of the urban forest, including the understorey vegetation and the importance of improved habitat connectivity. There was also considerable feedback in relation to community buy-in and the importance of building relationships between Council and our community and key stakeholders to build resiliency and respond to climate change together.
Council has made changes throughout the Urban Forest Strategy to better align the actions of the Strategy with the overarching vision, goals and guiding principles. In particular, the Action Table in Appendix 1 of the Strategy has been updated to ensure there is greater consistency, and provides measures to ensure the implementation of the Strategy can be undertaken successfully.
The timeline of the Strategy has also been updated to reflect the 20-year horizon, noting that the action plan identifies the approach to implementing the Strategy over the next four years. It is then anticipated that the actions can be updated to inform the next four year cycle of the Strategy.
The five key themes have also been updated. The ‘educate’ theme is now ‘Learn & Celebrate’ as it was considered this title better reflected the objectives, strategies and actions identified in this theme. The ‘Diversify’ theme is now titled ‘Healthier Ecosystems’ to better capture the need to improve biodiversity outcomes and to diversify tree species not only to respond to climate change, but also to ensure that food sources for fauna is being provided. Increasing the use of native and indigenous tree will help provide food sources and improve habitat connectivity within Bayside. Swapping out alien-species for indigenous plants will be vital to rebuilding the ecological foundations and set the stage for environmental recovery in Bayside.
Next steps
We will consider this report on community and stakeholder feedback and adopting a proposed Urban Forest Strategy at its 15 February 2022 meeting.
- Read the agenda
- Ask a question
- Submit a written statement (request to be heard)
- Watch the meeting live or view a recording
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