Deputy mayor Richard Ivey has encouraged Dubbo Regional Council to counteract the lack of trees, by planting more of them on public land.
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A Culture and Community Committee meeting on Thursday, May 12 saw local activist, Barbara Sutherland, raise questions about the council's plans to increase Dubbo's tree canopy cover. She said all large local government areas had policies to manage trees on public and private land, and that Dubbo needed a "strategic plan".
Ms Sutherland said councils in Orange and Armidale had made progress in terms of allocating a tree planting budget of more than $500,000, and planning to plant 300 trees a year in parks, respectively.
Bigger councils like Melbourne City Council aim to increase tree cover to 40 per cent by 2040 and the City of Sydney is aiming for the same by 2050.
Cr Ivey commented on the issue of trying to increase tree canopy on private land and called it "commendable". However, he was worried about new housing developments leaning towards having smaller backyards.
"I think council really needs to look at how we can encourage, perhaps even overcompensate, on public land for the lack of trees that are likely to be planted in some of these new housing developments," he said.
He also said putting trees on nature strips would come with restrictions because of surrounding infrastructure and said this was a "major problem", bigger than whether people were looking after trees in their own backyards.
The council will consider adopting a localised version of the State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP) 2021, to protect urban trees, in consultation with the public in July 2022.