Transcript Banyule City Council will sustain a dynamic urban forest that

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A View from the
Arboricultural Association
To Share
• My experience of i-Tree Eco in Australia as
guest of Arb Australia and the journey of
the Tree team at Banyule City Council
• The MoU entered into and the role of the
AA
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From X to Y to Z
• The journey from a detailed i-Tree Eco
evaluation 2013/2014
• To a working proposal to influence Council
thinking May 2013
• To a Strategic Plan in July in 2014 for
public consumption and implementation
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Who are they
• The City of Banyule is a local government area 63
kilometres in Victoria, Australia in the north-eastern
suburbs of Melbourne, 7 and 21 km from central
Melbourne
• Population of 118,306.
• 61,000 street trees
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The Council
• Council make decisions based upon a range of information
sources which include legislation, research, and evidence of good
practice.
Which don’t?
• The Council recognises that the community is made up of people
from different backgrounds, ages, interests and perspectives and
encourages all residents and community members to participate.
Which don’t ?
• The Tree Officers form part of the Environmental Planning team
and the work is conducted in house .
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Step X - the outcome of an i-Tree
Eco project
• An i-Tree Eco analysis was commissioned of the
urban street tree population –a public tree inventory
• 11,604 trees assessed from a population of 60,917 approx.
20%
• i- Tree Eco used to help quantify the urban forest structure, its
function and values
• Like with all Councils finances are tight and spend and
investment tightly controlled, highly political and monitored
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Urban Forest Functions and Values
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Air pollution removal
Carbon storage
Annual carbon removal (sequestration)
Changes in building energy use
Rainfall interception
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Additional data
• Addional data collected whilst on site - much cheaper
than coming back
• Remedial works
• Life expectancy distribution
• Risk rating
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Findings – a surprise
In addition to the I-Tree data it was found that
• Street tree population declining - the data suggested that the
current number of trees within the population was static. If
planting mortality of new trees , which was high, was taken into
account, it was highly probable that the street tree population was
actually decreasing.
• Over-mature trees in a streetscape environment would enter into
a status of decline, increasing the amount of hazards present,
due to declining canopy health and structural defects. An
environment typically assessed to be a very low risk would within
a short period of years increase to a high risk.
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Consequence:
• greater risks from trees within streets,
• higher management costs,
• and a significant loss of environmental and amenity
benefits.
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Aims of the Team
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Based on the i-Tree Eco inventory they determined that a significant
increase in annual planting needed to commence immediately.
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It was identified that 2000 additional trees should be planted in
streets annually to improve generational succession and counter the
potential identified issues.
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In addition to standard replacement planting for annually removed trees
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Recommendations
To improve the quality and function of the Banyule City Council urban forest
it was identified that:
• The use of larger longer living trees, where appropriate, would
significantly increase environmental benefits.
• The diversification of species selection and quantities would reduce
potential risks related to pest and disease.
• Species with broader canopy areas would reduce peak load on storm
water systems, improve pollution removal and alleviate urban heat island
effects.
• Increase annual planting and fill currently available vacant plantings ,
20,000 to offset the potential for a major decline in the extent and quality
of the urban forest.
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Step Y- influencing policy makers
The Tree Team therefore wanted to take
• the analysis from i-Tree Eco and translate it into
messages which would resonate with the local
councillors and the public
• to produce a proposition which persuaded ,using facts
and dollars, the Councillors of the need to commit too
an urban forest strategy. To obtain their “buy in” as
significant investment would be required
• to achieve a timed , resourced and funded strategic and
operational plan
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How to get from X to Y
To build upon the strategic plan in place and
• persuade Council that there was a need for the development of
• an Urban Forest Management Plan and
• a Street Tree Master Plan
• to see urban trees as valuable pieces of
civic infrastructure.
• produce a proposition which captured the i-Tree Eco data in a
format which resonated with Council taking into account politics,
public opinions, the Councils values, as well as the i-Tree Eco
values .
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What did they use/do
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Positive and constructive language
Identification of the levers to use to persuade
Financial data from i-Tree Eco
Scenarios i.e what the future could be with investment
Images
• Thermal representations using ground based thermal image
cameras (what does heat reduction actually look like)
• Photographic representations of streetscapes with and without trees
• Practiced once finalised how they would present this to Council,
the questions they could expect and the answers prepared
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Banyule City Council Tree Facts and
what was possible
60,000 street trees
• Typical street tree is 6m x 4m ($10.22) =
annual benefit of $613,000
• Optimal street tree 15m x 12m ($36.70) =
annual benefit of $2,200,000
359% improvement
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Were they successful ?
Yes
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Step Z - A Strategic Vision
• “Banyule City Council will sustain a
dynamic urban forest that nurtures and
enhances the health of its community,
economy, environment, and
neighbourhood character.”
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A message from the Mayor
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The Urban Forest Strategic Plan is an exciting step for Banyule City Council in its ongoing
commitment to manage one of its most important assets - its trees.
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We place enormous importance on keeping Banyule green and leafy, as does the community
who continually inform us how much trees contribute to the beauty and liveability of our City.
Aside from their aesthetic value, it's easy to forget what a vital role trees play and how
important it is to protect them.
• Our plan aims to improve stewardship over the trees that
provide us with the benefits of shade, clean air and water,
carbon storage and habitat for our fauna to mention a few.
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The development of this plan is a response to the voice of our community and will provide
Council the necessary directives to protect and enhance our valuable tree population for
generations to come.
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By nurturing, planting, protecting and planning, our strategy will see more trees take up root across
Banyule. It's something we can all work on together to ensure Banyule remains such a prized
urban forest.
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Building on what was in place
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Existing policies and planning scheme controls to protect certain elements of Banyule's urban
forest.
To ensure that Banyule maintains and improves its urban forest, a strategic vision is required
to provide the framework from which the existing overlays, policies and planning scheme
controls can operate.
It will also provide a foundation for Council to prepare an Urban Forest Management Plan and
a Street Tree Master Plan to ensure that planning and management today contributes to the
longevity and health of Banyule's future urban forest.
These documents propose to be forward thinking and span timeframes that mirror the
growing life of trees.
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Challenges captured
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Climate change causing increased frequency, variability and severity of
drought, storms and heatwaves that will affect tree health and longevity.
Conflicts with the implementation of electrical powerlines regulations,
underground cabling, gas and stormwater pipes works and regulations.
High mortality rate of newly planted trees - currently around 25% i.e.
approximately 25% of all trees planted do not survive.
Insufficient funding to increase tree planting.
Insufficient funding for tree planting to ensure a standard two year maintenance
cycle for newly planted trees.
Insufficient funding for tree pruning and removal to adequately manage current
tree population.
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Challenges captured
• Lack of general understanding within the community of trees and
their lifecycles.
• Lack of a current tree planting plan to address future issues
of tree species diversity, site suitability, neighbourhood character,
durability, longevity and growth requirements.
• Population growth, densification and urban consolidation.
• Streetscape works and upgrades that undervalue tree protection
and overvalue replaced materials (e.g. concrete).
• Vandalism and criminal damage results in the damage and loss
of replacement specimens and mature trees through wilful and
negligent community behaviour.
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Goals
Shared key goals- all with measures
• To increase tree planting and canopy cover on private and public
land
• To increase
• the environmental benefits of the Urban forest
• To improve
• biodiversity
• health
• establishment rates for new plantings
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Goals
• Improve community engagement
• Species selection
• Maintain and improve the urban character
• To raise the profile of the Urban Forest
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Step Z+
• All Goals have measures and all measures
have actions
• In summary the i-Tree Eco analysis
resulted in a major shift in Council thinking,
investment in the Urban Forest and a plan
for implementation
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The MoU Between Forest Research
and Treeconomics
A common commitment to developing and using i-Tree software to :
• quantify, assess and value the ecosystem services delivered by the
urban forest and
• to collaborate to develop the usefulness and uptake of the software
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Overall Objective of Collaboration
To deliver the “i-Tree UK” project, which has four main objectives:
• manage the development strategy for the i-Tree suite of tools
in the UK;
• collate and store data from i-Tree studies undertaken in the
UK;
• gather and share information about the value of UK trees;
and,
• manage the promotion of i-Tree in the UK and help other
organisations and individuals to make maximum use of i-Tree
study data and reports.
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The AA’s role
• To represent the arboricultural and related
sectors in supporting the i-Tree UK project,
and work with relevant stakeholders to
promote the benefits of using the i-Tree
approach, by:
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The AA’s role
• Pulling together a statement of support for the deployment of iTree within the UK to be used to influence government thinking at
national and local level and policy formulation
• Communicating and promoting the value of i-Tree to those
involved in Arboriculture, related sectors and the wider media;
• Developing case studies that demonstrate practical benefits of iTree studies, drawing from the datasets recorded;
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The AA’s role
• Working with local and national media to promote the
objectives and findings of local, regional and national
i-Tree projects;
• Act as strategic project co-ordinator for i-Tree in the
UK, providing Project Advisory/Steering Group(s) as
necessary for the development of individual tools from
the i-Tree suite;
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The AA’s role
• Ensuring that all promotional materials
appropriately and correctly acknowledge the
contributions of the relevant Parties;
• Developing and providing training in how to construct
and write effective management plans and associated
reports using the data arising from i-Tree, to best
enable policy and strategy to be agreed and
implemented in relation to the urban forest.
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Why be involved?
• Because i-Tree Eco can provide a vehicle
to demonstrate the value of trees in urban
settings
• Because its part of our objective to promote
the sustainable management of trees
where people live work and play
• Because it matters
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