Management of Trees on Public Urban Land

Parks, Conservation and Lands (PCL) is responsible for the management and maintenance of trees growing on unleased urban Territory Land, including suburban street and major road nature strips and medians, and in parks and landscaped open spaces in Canberra. Well developed maintenance programs for public trees are important for maintaining tree health and ensuring that public safety is not compromised. 

• Investigation into the Government’s tree management practices and the renewal of Canberra’s urban forest—April 2010  ( PDF 2.6MB)

Tree Management Policy

The objectives of urban tree management are to enhance the landscape setting for the city, to maintain a safe and sustainable urban forest and to conserve the natural environment. Management responsibility includes:

• Ensuring trees in high use urban areas are regularly inspected for hazards that could pose a risk to public safety;
• Ensuring trees are routinely pruned with the aim of protecting public utlities, enhancing public safety and urban amenity, and improving or maintaining tree health;
• Carrying out major tree surgery work as required;
• Carrying out remedial tree surgery and the removal of fallen or broken timber following storm events;
• Ensuring dead and dying or dangerous trees are removed and replaced with tree species that give expression to the original landscape design intent; and
• Ensuring groups of trees, including urban plantations, are thinned and pruned to reduce the risk of fire and to improve tree health.

PCL practices whole of life-cycle management for the trees in its care. Whole of life-cycle management means monitoring a tree from planting to maturity and when a tree becomes too old and is no longer viable from a hazard prevention or aesthetic perspective, arranging for its removal and replacement. 

PCL's overarching tree management approach is: Plan, Maintain and Replace as follows:

Planning

Planning and landscape refurbishment activities in public open space in the ACT are guided by objectives and policies in relevant Master Plans, Plans of Management and the Strategic Bushfire Management Plan. Diversity in species selection is encouraged and improved cultivars and recently introduced species and varieties are evaluated and incorporated into urban tree planting programs from time to time. A diverse range of species horticulturally suitable to Canberra's environment and climate are generally selected from the Design Standards for Urban Infrastructure: Volume 22 ( PDF 325KB) and Volume 23 ( PDF 2.5MB).

Maintenance

Trees in the public urban landscape are maintained in five ways:

1. Inspection: Trees in the urban areas of Canberra are inspected periodically from ground level, to monitor tree health and identify potential hazards.  Trees in high use areas such as town or district parks and shopping centres are inspected every 1 to 2 years. Inspecting trees regularly ensures that structural defects and/or other risk factors are identified and dealt with in a timely and targeted manner. When a member of the public expresses concern for the safety or health of a particular tree on public land, a site visit is arranged.
2. Pruning: Priority is given to trees in areas of high public use, such as streets, car parks, shopping centres and picnic areas.  Formative pruning of young trees is carried out in the first five years following planting. Multiple leaders on young trees are removed or reduced when they are considered to be a potential future hazard. Trees are pruned to avoid interference with power lines, street signs, street lights and other services. Lower branches up to a height of 3 to 5 metres may be removed in order to give clear pedestrian and traffic access and clear sight lines, particularly for vehicles entering and leaving driveways, or approaching intersections. On main roads and major streets, lower branches are removed to a maximum height  of 5m. To minimise hazards caused by wind and rain, thinning of tree crowns may be carried out. Trees are shaped by shortening heavy limbs and general pruning to give a balanced weight distribution in the tree framework. Dead, diseased, cracked, hollow or otherwise unsound wood is removed. All tree surgery work will be carried out by qualified staff.
3. Watering: Trees are watered to ensure their establishment and survival. Trees under three years of age in non-irrigated areas are watered monthly from January to May or as specified by PCL. During unusually dry weather, trees may receive additional water. Residents are urged to water young trees in their neighbourhood to help them become established in the landscape. This assists in the continuation of Canberra’s urban forest.
4. Spraying: Tree selection and management aims to minimise the use of pesticides. Tree species are selected on the basis of their resistance to pests and diseases. Trees are only treated with pesticides during the establishment period (1 to 3 years). In any case trees greater than 5 metres in height are not sprayed and Eucalypt species are not sprayed specifically for the control of sawfly larvae.
5. Removal: A strongly conservative policy is adopted towards the removal of live trees on public land.  Trees are:

• Removed when they are dead, damaged or in irreversible decline; constitute a traffic hazard/other identifiable hazard to public safety which can't be corrected by pruning; or interfering with above or below-ground services such as power lines or water pipes and the problem is likely to require repeated remedial action. 
• Considered for removal where the tree is an unsuitable species for where it is planted, such as poplars and willows near storm water lines, or in conflict with the design intent of the landscape; are part of a dense planting which requires thinning to promote the health of the remaining trees; or were designated as temporary in the original landscape design and have reached the end of their intended life span.
• Not removed for reasons such as householder preference for no street tree or for a different species; complaints about appearance (unless these are related to very poor tree health); complaints about leaf litter or twigs; or complaints relating to tree roots protruding above the ground or competing with lawns.

If it is necessary to remove individual living trees from nature strips, regardless of whether the tree was planted by the ACT Government or the householder, the householder will be consulted as to the reasons why the tree is to be removed. Where a group of trees are to be removed the level of consultation will be more extensive. Where the removal of a street tree is necessitated for reasons associated with a redevelopment of a block it will be replaced with a new tree of an appropriate species in a similar location.

Replacement

Tree replacement is an important part of the maintenance of Canberra’s public landscape. The timely replacement of dead or missing trees in newly developed landscapes, regular replacement of established trees, and replanting programs that follow the removal of ageing trees not only ensures that the original landscape design intent is initially achieved but also retained for future generations.  PCL encourages the community to become involved with the establishment and care of new trees in their neighbourhood. Where trees are identified and/or scheduled for replacement, every effort is made to consult with the community about the reasons for replacement.

• Replacing Young Trees - Trees are planted at the rate of at least one street tree per residential frontage in new suburbs.  This ensures that formal streetscapes are established as the city grows.  Depending on the availability of funding, missing trees are replaced with the same or similar species as originally planted.  Residents are encouraged to monitor and care for young trees on their nature strip to maximise survival rates.
• Replacing Ageing Trees - Ageing trees in parks and streetscapes are subject to strategic tree replacement programs.  Parks and streets where aging trees need to be removed and replaced are identified and subject to funding, these sites are included on the annual tree replacement program.  This ensures that the original landscape design intent is retained for future generations.  Local residents are informed of the reasons for the replacement of street trees and consulted to ensure that their wishes are taken into consideration.
• Routine Tree Replacement - Trees in parks or streets that have been removed for the reasons above or are missing are recorded and routinely replanted in a later planting season. This procedure ensures that the original landscape design intent is retained as plants mature.

Further Information on the Management of Public Trees in Canberra

• Frequently Asked Questions
• Tree Planting Requests on Public Land
• Maintaining Canberra's Public Treescape
• Tree Damage Claims Procedures
• Tree Replacement Program 2009
• Give a Tree a Drink
• TAMS Tree Protection Unit

Further Information on the Management of Private Trees in Canberra

• Tree Protection