SEARCH
Contact

Greening our City

Urban Greening Urban Greening

The City of Bayswater is committed to ensuring the community has a sustainable future by:

  • Preserving and planting trees
  • Creating eco-friendly recreational spaces
  • Encouraging the community to plant waterwise gardens.

The City has made the pledge to the community of a 20% urban tree canopy by 2030.

urban forest strategy urban forest strategy

Urban Forest Strategy

The City's Urban Forest Strategy aims to create a resilient urban forest that is both diverse and vigorous while improving the livability values for the greater community and for future generations.

On 28 June 2022, Council resolved to amend its urban forest canopy target from an aspirational target of 20% coverage by 2025 to a specific target of 20% coverage by 2030. Council also set middle-term specific targets of 16% by 2025 and 18% by 2027.

In the same meeting, it was decided to focus tree planting efforts on areas surrounding schools and town centres, supplemented by planting on streets with low canopy coverage, in line with the Green Dreams Approach. Read more about this below.

The Urban Forest Strategy is reported on yearly at Audit and Risk Committee Meetings.

Green Dreams approach

The Green Dreams approach provides the City with an urban forest implementation strategy that is underpinned by research from The University of Western Australia and the Australian Urban Design Research Centre.

The research explored and modelled the benchmarking of current canopy cover, mapping the likely effects of infill development on canopy coverage, urban forest scenarios to deliver an increase in canopy coverage, the synthesis of multiple urban forest scenarios into a hybrid scenario, and urban forest scenario testing with Planning Support System with respect to mental health, physical health, walkability and the regulation of extreme heat events.

Through this process, three urban canopy scenarios were modelled, being The Streets Equalizer, The Town Forest and The Kids Forest, then combined to create a hybrid model. The City is now working towards implementing these scenarios which can be viewed in further detail below.

 

 

The Streets Equalizer

This planting scenario focuses on beautifying the City’s streets through requests from our residents.

Beautifies our streets

Provides food and habitat for wildlife

Cleans our air and absorbs pollutants

Improves mental health and wellbeing

Creates welcoming, shaded neighbourhoods

Reduces heat, glare and flooding

The Kids Forest

This planting scenario focuses on providing shaded streets around local schools which will encourage children and parents to walk to school and enjoy the many health benefits trees bring.

For every additional tree per kilometre, the odds of walking increase by 4%

Time in nature increases children's attention spans, creative thought processes and problem-solving skills

Having trees closer to home encourages children to interact with and be inquisitive about nature

Walking to school means less cars on the road, leading to less pollution and a safer environment for children 

Providing children with environments that reduce stress and increase wellbeing has long-term effects on happiness 

A 5% increase in tree cover can reduce daytime temperature by 2.3C

The Town Forest

This planting scenario focuses on greening our town centres so they are attractive places to visit and work in.

Beautifies our streets

Provides food and habitat for wildlife

Cleans our air and absorbs pollutants

Improves mental health and wellbeing

Creates welcoming, shaded neighbourhoods

Reduces heat, glare and flooding

City Planting Projects

As part of our commitment to greening our City, we will plant more than 7,000 trees per year, in addition to the thousands of shrubs and groundcovers planted across our parks, streetscapes and natural areas.

The City’s annual Tree Planting Program focuses on delivering the outcomes of the Green Dreams approach, including resident requests.

Planting is undertaken each year in identified zones as indicated in the below program and map.

Annual Tree Planting Program

FINANCIAL YEAR2023/242024/252025/262026/272027/282028/292029/302030/312031/322032/332033/34
YEAR PLANTED20232024202520262027202820292030203120322033
ZONE3 and 74125612345
TREES5,1382,0003,2003,2003,2003,2003,2003,2003,2003,2003,200

Note: This program is subject to change based on resourcing.

street tree planting map (PDF)

These efforts are supported by the City's environmental groups, and the plants provided to residents through the Plants to Residents program in partnership with Environment House.

We will let the community know what areas are being considered for planting before works start, so there is the opportunity for residents to provide feedback.

For more information on tree care and the City's planting guidelines, visit our Urban Tree Care webpage.

How you can help green our City

Go to Top of the page