Advocacy groups and local governments are pushing for more action to increase Perth’s tree canopy.
The state government is being urged to set an ambitious target to grow areas of tree canopy in Perth, ahead of what’s likely to be a dry, hot summer.
The Western Australian capital has the lowest tree canopy of any city in the nation, at 16 per cent, according to 2020 data from the Western Australian Local Government Association.
WA is the only state without a state government-mandated tree canopy target.
A not-for-profit group for the protection and growth of the canopy in urban areas, Western Australian Tree Canopy Advocates, has called for a target of 30 per cent by 2040 to be introduced and worked towards in a strategic manner.
“Thirty per cent is considered internationally as a minimum standard for a healthy urban forest,” WATCA chair Nick Cook said.
The protection of significant trees on private property was outlined as a critical element in achieving this target.
In conversation with Business News, WATCA co-founder Sarah Allchurch said 80 per cent of tree loss in Perth was on private land, and the advocacy group was working closely with local councils to address this.
“Each local government area has its own [tree canopy] percentage,” she said.
“You have [local government areas] on the outskirts of Perth, particularly north, that have the most appallingly low tree canopy percentages; less than two per cent.
“At the very least, we need to set an aggressive target for the city so that, inevitably, policies and legislation will have to fall under that set target.
“Without the target, it doesn’t really show any commitment to addressing the issue.
“The mission now is to go to mayors and CEOs and talk about the off-the-shelf WALGA policy to implement.”
Healthy tree canopy in Applecross. Photo: Michael O'Brien
During the past few months, WATCA has engaged with the City of Nedlands, City of Cockburn, Town of Bassendean, Town of Cambridge and the Shire of Peppermint Grove.
City of Vincent is another LGA working to protect trees, with Mayor Alison Xamon telling Business News a healthy tree canopy provided invaluable benefits.
“Obviously, one of the things it does is provide significant amenity, particularly in terms of the cooling effect with hot high-density environments,” Ms Xamon said.
“It also ensures we’ve got appropriate levels of habitat for local fauna, it provides privacy, noise abatement, visual amenity; all of these things.
“We’re particularly committed to making sure our suburbs are as walkable as possible, and tree canopy is a critical part of that.
“We need to be contributing and doing our part towards trying to offset the effects of climate change and increasing tree canopy is part of that solution.”
She said the City of Vincent was exploring mechanisms to encourage property developers to retain mature trees.
“One of the strategies being increasingly explored is requiring a development application before you can actually remove a tree of a particular size,” Ms Xamon said.
“The other thing is significant tree registers and having protections around specific trees that achieve certain criteria … a significant size or a particular type, for example.
“But one of the things we’re particularly interested in pursuing here in Vincent are incentives for developers and … people who are looking to extend their homes on their land ... to keep existing trees.”
City of Vincent prioritises property development applications that incorporate tree retention.
“We have something called the Green Track Process, which means if you are someone who’s building an environmentally sustainable home and looking at issues of tree retention, we’re going to give you priority in terms of getting your proposal through,” Ms Xamon told Business News.
“We are the first council in Australia to have ever done this. We did this in early 2024 and it has already received an award and is being well utilised.
"Tree retention is part of the process by which environmental sustainability is achieved.
“We’ll look at flexible options for how people might undertake builds in order to retain mature vegetation.
“A lot of it is … educating people about why you need to keep trees. I’m still astounded to discover people who believe they need to come with a cleared block before they can even come to the council.
“I acknowledge groups like WATCA that are really trying to raise a general awareness about the importance of tree canopy.”
Alison Xamon says the City of Vincent is ensuring its suburbs are as walkable as possible. Photo: Michael O’Brien
The state government has spent more than $10 million over the past two years on developing programs to improve tree canopy and liveability.
The primary initiative under development is the Urban Greening Strategy for the Perth and Peel regions, expected to be finalised in late 2024.
But Ms Xamon said she was apprehensive about the effectiveness of the strategy.
“I’m concerned that it may not go as far as what will be required in order to enable councils to protect their canopy,” she said.
“I’m frustrated that individual councils are being hampered in their efforts to employ measures that can protect their own canopy.”
WATCA’s Mr Cook said the strategy may be a good first step, but it fell short of what was required.
“It means the government is paying attention to the issue, but it misses the mark by not addressing the private property issue,” he said.
Ms Allchurch said tree retention on private land was an essential component of any long-term plan.
“Any strategy that doesn’t contain or propose protection for trees on private land plus a tree canopy target is like fighting a bushfire with a garden hose,” she said.
“Inadequate doesn’t even cover it.
“[The strategy] contains things like educate people, create green links between natural areas, look at getting better data. While it’s something, it’s not enough.”
Ms Allchurch said the issue was not complicated.
“We’re not saying every single tree [needs protection],” she said.
“We’re just talking about the really big ones with large canopies.
“Those are irreplaceable. They take so long to grow; decades and decades and decades.”
Planning Minister John Carey said the state government supported proposals to increase Perth’s urban tree canopy, but, in January this year, rejected the introduction of regulation to protect trees on private property.
Ms Allchurch said she spoke to Mr Carey before the formal decision.
“I met with him personally … a month or two before the decision was released,” she said.
“The City of Nedlands and South Perth and Bassendean spent a very long time getting a scheme amendment done through council, through community … through the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage, through the Western Australian Planning Commission.
“The last hurdle was the minister for planning, and in January he knocked them all back and didn’t really provide any valid reason other than the housing crisis.
“We’re not anti-development. We understand if there’s a big tree in the middle of a block that’s not going to work for what you want to build, then yeah, it should come out.
“But let’s try and retain some of these big, beautiful trees that are on the boundary that won’t affect your build.”
Nick Cook and Sarah Allchurch. Photo: Michael O'Brien
Mr Cook said architects in WA were good at advocating for tree retention.
“Most architects will say they prefer to work around trees and incorporate those landscapes into their buildings,” he said.
Architecture firms were not the only businesses responsible for protecting trees, Mr Cook said.
“For a real-world example … we have a group in Geraldton [called] Geraldton Tree Canopy Advocates and they’ve been successful in winning a couple of grants from Geraldton Port Authority,” Mr Cook said.
“It’s a business that realises it has a social licence to operate and has community grants, and these guys have won those grants and they’ve been planting trees at bus stops.”
The regional push extends beyond the Mid West too.
Ms Allchurch said WATCA also aimed to address the tree canopy issue in other regions of the state.
“It’s really important to note that we do represent urban centres other than Perth,” she said.
“We’ve got a group in Geraldton, Bunbury, Busselton, Dunsborough, and we’re hoping to have one in Albany.
“We’re just trying to get people in every major centre to keep pushing this.”
Businesses are also encouraged to get on board.
“[Businesses] can do all the basics, like the Adopt-A-Tree Program and encouraging employees to volunteer for things like Trillion Trees,” Ms Allchurch said.
“There are the obvious things in terms of the actual physical space where business buildings are and looking at ways to incorporate green infrastructure, green walls, green roofing, sustainable landscaping, drought-tolerant planting and trees, donations to groups, educational campaigns for employees, incentives to customers for green practices.
“But [also] to flag with their customers and employees that this is an important issue, so it starts to ripple out into community.”
New regulation could have flow-on effects for some. Arboricultural consultant Luke Lumbus said arborist businesses would not be negatively affected by tree removal restrictions, as long as they had diversity.
Mr Lumbus has 25 years’ experience with urban trees in Perth and advises clients through his company Arboribus Consulting.
“There’s a lot of work out there at the moment for people who want to remove trees,” Mr Lumbus told Business News.
“It’s the companies that are able to diversify in that space, that know how to prune a tree, that’ll really succeed in their business.
“Are restrictions on tree removal going to impact arborists? Possibly, but they need to get better at tree management.
“They need to get appropriately trained and qualified to then diversify into something more.”
Mr Lumbus said he was supportive of introducing regulations to protect trees on private property.
“I’m all for tree retention and protection,” he said.
“I feel that you have to exhaust all your retention options before you can say that a tree needs to be removed.
“From my perspective, a tree that’s unhealthy, in an irreversible spiral of decline, and/or there’s no chance of recovery, then we can consider removal. Insofar as just being able to remove trees for no reason, I don’t support that.”
Mr Lumbus said immediately turning to removal was an uneducated way of addressing the issue.
“People look at a tree in a backyard and say, ‘I want that tree removed, I’ll call an arborist and get that tree cut down’ because they think it’s dangerous or messy,” Mr Lumbus said.
“It’s a very backwards way of doing things, really.
“From the perspective of Nedlands and South Perth, which have been working on improving their tree retention policies, it’s a good thing because it increases awareness into tree retention, preservation and protection.
“It means that we start to get more critical inputs at the right time for residents if they do have concerns about a tree, rather than just opting for removal.”
As a consultant and former climbing arborist, Mr Lumbus suggested he had a nuanced view of how regulation would affect the sector.
“I can speak from both sides of the story,” he said. “I work closely with architects, landscape architects, engineers, project management teams, builders, land developers [and] LGAs to look at how we can incorporate and protect trees in developments or subdivisions.
“I also work with a number of different arborists that do tree pruning and removal.
“Most experienced tree pruning companies also do tree removals, so it ends up being one and the same.
“Arboriculture consultants can develop a canopy management plan for an arborist to implement and that might [make] the difference. There are solutions to tree removal.”
Perth has the lowest tree canopy of any Australian city, at 16 per cent. Photo: Michael O'Brien
Shot-hole borer
The current shot-hole borer infestation has added further pressure to Perth’s tree canopy crisis.
More than 3,600 trees have been removed since the polyphagous shot-hole borer was first detected in WA three years ago, and there is currently no solution to eradicate the bug.
While research is being undertaken to find alternative strategies, such as the use of pesticides, cutting down or pruning host trees is the only approved option to kill the shot-hole borer and try to stop its spread.
Hyde Park, Kings Park, Lake Claremont and Perth Zoo have been identified as the sites most significantly affected, but the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development has named more than 80 areas as been affected.
The first stage of treatment at Hyde Park started on October 14, while removal of infested trees in Kings Park’s Mounts Bay Gardens began earlier this year.
Mr Cook said lengthy delays in responding to the shot-hole borer had caused the infestation to spread.
“I run the Friends of Lake Claremont Group, and this is one of the hotspots for the borer,” he said. “Over 130 trees are slated for removal. “It has been really lengthy time delays [that] allowed the borer to continue to spread. It’s just next-level madness.
“It’s just been one bungle after another, as far as Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development goes.”
The state government announced a $7.2 million investment in August to plant more than 16,000 trees to replace those removed.
This is estimated as being three replacement trees for each tree lost.
As part of the program, local governments and residential landholders would be able to apply for funding and guidance on appropriate replacement trees.
