The people of Canberra have inherited a wonderful legacy. In this season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, we admire it more than at other times of the year, but it here all year round – the canopy of trees. Canberra trees, native and exotic, make this city unique and are one of the reasons it is a joy to live in. They enable us to connect with nature as move about the city engaging in work or play. The legacy has taken 87 years to build. It has required a huge amount of work, experimentation, investment and commitment. But in the past decade we have watched the legacy being eroded. Less seems to be done to maintain streetscapes. In new greenfields developments, there is less public space, higher densities and a higher ratio of building to land, so there is less room for trees. And worst of all, in-fill development in inner areas is resulting in the gradual erosion of the Canberra treescape. Dual occupancies are resulting in the destruction of established gardens for second dwellings. Block amalgamation and unit development is resulting in less land for trees. It is possible that the slinging of datacast cable along the power poles will lower the height of tree canopy along the electricity easements.
These developments have been deplored by citizens, but until recently have had very little official recognition. Indeed, the first decade of self-government was one of Liberal-Labor policies of develop no matter what, instead of sustainable development. Those policies ignored not just the aesthetic values of the trees, but also their economic value. One person might make a fast buck, but if everyone tries it property values fall all around. Hypocritical advertisements of newly developed dual occupancies in inner suburbs exhort people to come and live in this leafy suburb, when the very dwelling advertised is on the site of what was a garden and the leafiness is only there because of the neighbours. The place becomes less attractive for tourists and high-value add industries who have to provide an attractive place to live for their workforce.
But now the Legislative Assembly Standing Committee on Planning and Urban Services has called for a tree management and protection policy for the ACT.
It has rightly gone beyond calling for a register of significant trees. Sure, preserve the big old trees, but that policy alone will not be enough to maintain the capital as a Bush Capital. That legacy requires attention to maintaining and renewing hundreds of thousands of insignificant tress which taken together are significant.
The committee – comprising MLAs Harold Hird, Dave Rugendyke and Simon Corbell — addresses the most significant deficiency in present policy – that there is nothing protecting trees on private land. They called for a register and changes to development policies that are detrimental to trees, in particular a review of dual occupancy policy in older suburbs, increased verge widths in greenfields developments, new standards for the percentage of impervious surfaces on small blocks. But if nothing is achieved on those fronts it might be necessary to move to blanket tree preservation orders, an approach the committee sensibly avoided first up.
The committee called for better maintenance practices, places for people to get advice on trees and awards and incentives for good tree management. It also called for more research, including whether essential services, like water, should be relocated under the surface of the road to give big trees a better chance. The committee should have mentioned electricity.
All Canberrans should recognise the significant national public aesthetic and economic assets that exists in Canberra’s trees, whether they are on private or public land and that we all have a duty to preserve this legacy. The Assembly should take on board what the committee has recommended before we lose the legacy.