The Minister for City Services has announced that Canberra’s winter tree planting program has been completed.
To mark the occasion the Minister, Chris Steel, helped plant a mix of new trees and shrubs in Waramanga.
Mr Steel also sent a warning to people who damaged or removed trees without approval and announced that his Directorate would be targeting its enforcement work.
He said that over the winter, 608 trees had been planted in new homes, streets, major road verges, parks and other open spaces.
“We manage one of the largest urban forests in Australia and the Government is responsible for more than 760,000 trees on public land throughout the city,” Mr Steel said.
“The Government also protects the trees across our city and I have asked my Directorate to work with colleagues across Government on a targeted enforcement program to ensure our most important suburban trees are the focus of compliance.”
Mr Steel said that while most Canberrans loved their tree-scape, there were some irresponsible people in the community who did the wrong thing.
He said the Government was committed to the protection of the urban forest.
“If you poison or cut down a regulated tree without approval, you are breaking the law,” Mr Steel said.
He said his announcement of the end of winter planting came ahead of a discussion paper on the review into the Tree Protection Act 2005 to be published in the coming months to ensure there was a compliance process that supported protection of important trees in the ACT’s suburbs.
