The ACT Greens want Environment Commissioner Maxine Cooper to investigate the Government's tree-felling program, especially the criteria for taking down trees and whether the risk of falling limbs is being overstated.
The Greens plan to move a motion in the Assembly today asking the Government for a raft of guarantees including that communities are ''thoroughly consulted in all urban tree removal and planting activities''.
They also want the Government to ensure ''any potential risk to the public posed by a tree is assessed in consultation with the community'' and that the risk is managed in a way that prioritises ''the continued life of the tree'' rather than its removal. The motion calls for the Government to guarantee ''urban trees are cared for to ensure their survival and good health''.
Greens territory and municipal services spokeswoman Caroline Le Couteur has separately written to Dr Cooper suggesting an investigation of tree removal programs was ''an important and timely environmental issue'' and that there had been ''a great deal of concern in the public about the Government's approach to removing street trees''.
She said as the Government planned to move into a much broader urban forest renewal program, Dr Cooper should examine issues such as the criteria for tree removal, the adequacy of community consultation, the process for picking replacement trees and ''whether the weight the Government gives to the threat of litigation around ageing trees is appropriate''.
Ms Le Couteur said the Government's excuse that apparently healthy looking trees had to be removed because their limbs were unstable and posed a risk to the public was a disproportionate worry. ''We're not convinced that the evidence is there that the trees are such as hazard to the people of Canberra,'' she said.
Ms Le Couteur denied contacting Dr Cooper was a signal by the Greens that they had no confidence in the Government's ability to manage tree removal and replacement.
''... We're concerned about the operation,'' she said. ''These are 60-year decisions. If we cut them down when they shouldn't be cut down, we can't band-aid them back together again.''
The Government's usual tree replacement program has seen 282 trees removed in recent months to be replaced by 588 trees. It is considering a study which says up to two-thirds of the 630,000 trees on public land will have to be replaced over the next 25 years. Ms Le Couteur agreed Canberra's ageing trees would need to be replaced but believed the Government needed to get the processes right now.
''Make sure they consult the community, make sure they spend enough time to work out if the tree is actually dying or is it just one branch needs pruning and also make sure when they replant the trees, they actually water them and look after them in the first few years, because that's one thing we're getting uniform feedback about that they're not being looked after as they need to,'' she said.
The Government has argued it consulted people before tree removals including by letterbox-drops. Ms Le Couteur said given the number of residents surprised and outraged by the tree removals, that system wasn't working. She suggested listing street by street in a public notice which trees were coming up for review so the community could respond before they were removed. ''We have to do much better consultation than what we're doing at the moment.''
Email a friend