More trees to green our streets

More than 1250 new trees will be planted over the next four months as part of the City of Whittlesea’s street tree planting program, providing even more shade and green cover in our neighbourhoods.

New trees will be planted across residential streets, main roads and parks and include a range of deciduous and evergreen tree species, specifically selected to suit the location and its surrounds including canopy cover, enhancing neighbourhood character, climate ready environment, local conditions such as nature strip width and providing habitat for native wildlife.

Chair Administrator Lydia Wilson said that Council was committed to increasing the number of trees and green cover across the City of Whittlesea, in line with its Greening Whittlesea target of planting 500,000 more trees in five years.

“We know that trees are an important element of our natural environment, providing a range of benefits including much needed shade in urban areas, habitat for native wildlife and making our neighbourhoods look and feel more inviting,” Ms. Wilson said.

“We’ve set an ambitious target to increase the number of trees in the City of Whittlesea and every tree planted brings us closer to achieving this.”

“The new trees that will be planted as part of this program include a range of indigenous trees, as well as other species such as the Flowering Plum and Chinese Elm. Each tree is picked to complement the surrounding environment and provide maximum long-term benefits for our residents.”

As part of the planting program, some existing trees will need to be removed due to poor health or deterioration due to age.

“While we will need to remove some trees, we will be replanting in those locations and filling any gaps, ensuring that we continue to increase our overall green cover. Our aim is to achieve a 20 per cent increase on the City’s existing green cover by 2040, providing additional shade and cooling and helping make our neighbourhoods even better places to live,” said Ms. Wilson.

This stage of our long-term street tree planting program will take place between late February and the end of June 2023.