The Minister for City Services has announced that more than 17,000 trees are to be planted across the city as way of coping with global warming.
Declaring what he called the largest tree planning program of the century, the Minister, Chris Steel said the character of Canberra and its suburbs were fundamentally linked to its tree canopy.
“Trees play a big role in the lives of Canberrans,” Mr Steel said.
“They keep our streets up to 10 degrees cooler in summer, and help us to adapt to climate change.”
“Over 17,000 new trees will be planted across the city to ensure Canberra’s beautiful urban forest is renewed and enhanced for future generations.”
He said planting locations would particularly focus on areas of low urban canopy cover and areas where the canopy was at risk of decline with the ageing of existing trees.
“We will also be looking to fill in gaps in the existing tree canopy cover in suburbs which are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change,” Mr Steel said.
He said the plantings would go ahead while an Urban Forest Strategy was developed over the next 12 months.
He said the strategy would set out a pathway to meet canopy targets, build the resilience of Canberra’s green canopy and ensure Canberra remained a liveable city in the future.
“We will also begin a large-scale tree propagation program at the Government’s nursery at Yarralumla and engage and involve the community in this substantial planting program,” the Minister said.
He said the Government managed more than 766,000 public trees in streets and urban open spaces.
