Which Plant Where program
More greenery in our towns and cities is imperative for healthy minds, healthy bodies and a healthy environment.
A key challenge for greening Australia’s urban environment is to ensure that future plantings are made with trees, shrubs and turf that can tolerate the climate conditions that will occur in the near future.
The Which Plant Where program is a series of five-year research programs that investigates how well current landscaping species will cope under the more extreme climates that Australia’s cities will face and investigate opportunities for new species and varieties for the urban context. Ku-ring-gai Council is proud to be part of the exciting Which Plant Where Living Labs Program at Robert Pymble Park.
Read the media release for more information.
Urban Forest Policy
Council has recently created an Urban Forest Policy(PDF, 657KB) and captured new Urban Forest (Canopy) mapping. This information will be used to create an Urban Forest Monitoring Program and an Urban Forest Strategy to help manage this key resource.
Urban Forest replenishment program
Since the early 2000s, Council has been committed to managing Ku-ring-gai’s urban tree canopy. We have focused on:
- Maintaining and increasing canopy.
- Ensuring trees on Council managed land (parks, nature strips, sportsfields, bushland and golf courses) include a range of trees varying in life span, height and ability to support wildlife habitat.
The NSW Government 5 Million Trees initiative aims to increase canopy cover across Greater Sydney to 40% by 2030. Although Ku-ring-gai has one of the highest canopy cover in the region, with increased pressures from urbanisation and an aging tree canopy, ongoing management and replenishment of our canopy is essential.
Urban Forest Strategy - Have your say
Council is developing an Urban Forest Strategy which will define how Council manages and improves our urban forest for current and future generations.
As part of Phase 1 community engagement for the project Council invited the community to complete a survey during October 2021, concluding on 5 November 2021.
For this we established a page through Council’s engagement hub where we included a link to a survey with 11 questions asking about peoples experience and sentiment towards trees in Ku-ring-gai. These responses were able to provide valuable insights into what the community thought was going well and where we could make improvements. Overall from the 139 respondents, most people are supportive of trees and increasing our canopy cover.
What comes next?
The next phase of consultation will coincide with publication of the draft Urban Forest Strategy. The document will be placed on public exhibition later this year for the community to provide feedback. The comments received will inform any amendments to the strategy prior to it being presented to Council for adoption.