But that's not quite what he saw.

While that description swells pride in the city, it was offered before the latest drought wrought the worst of its nasty intent upon the much-admired tree canopy of the national capital.

In many pockets of the ACT, hundreds of trees are dying under the fierce fist of climate change to the extent where the city's "Living Infrastructure Plan", launched by the government just last year, is already rooted in dry and uncertain ground.

The government's plan set out 15 actions, with various directorates required to map out a schedule of their "deliverables" by the end of 2020.

In 2018, City Services Minister told the ACT Assembly that an audit revealed the city had 766,000 trees in the "urban forest".

The big concern now is how many of these, already stressed by the last furnace blast of summer, can endure another long, hot season before the machinery of government, interrupted by a lengthy, do-little election hiatus in October, makes decisions and the remedial work hopefully begins.

A key target of the plan is to deliver a 30 per cent tree canopy cover - or its equivalent - across the city by 2045.

To inform that plan is an "urban forest strategy", a document which aims to outline "how the urban forest can be maintained and enhanced to improve amenity in a changing climate and deliver biodiversity outcomes".

Without its trees, Canberra becomes just another city.

So obsessed is Canberra with its trees that just one large London plane tree in Manuka, drinking heartily from roots embedded in the city's septic lines, held a much-needed multi-million dollar local redevelopment at bay for nearly five years.

The tree went on to be the subject of three different matters heard at the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

The late Charles Weston, whose horticulture teams planted 1.2 million trees between 1921 and 1924 to create the forest canopy which has endured long after his death, would recognise the extent of the challenge ahead.

In June last year, the government announced a plan to plant 17,000 trees over the next four years to help restore Canberra's declining canopy cover. The ACT Greens are pushing for "thousands more" simply to arrest the natural decline, now accelerating as the summers get longer and hotter.

Urban infill is encouraged to fill the sizeable backyards of Canberra's older suburbs, but these potential building allotments also hide many well-aged, arboreal jewels from yesteryear. Once gone, they won't be returned.

There's considerable costs involved to protect the city natural heritage and amenity, and the more prosaic task of reducing urban heat soak. To simply keep the city's trees alive this past summer has required more watering contractors and shorter intervals between watering.

The National Capital Authority, which manages 18,000 trees located within the national triangle and central national areas of Barton and Parkes, is in a better position to fast-track plans to exceed the ACT government's tree goals.

The NCA's stated target is to increase its enclave's current tree canopy from 33 per cent to 40 per cent.

Unlike the rest of the ACT, the leafy sanctum of the national triangle is not saddled with managing commercial and residential imperatives. It also has deep Federal coffers from which to draw its funding.

Nola Marino, the West Australian assistant Minister for Regional Development and Territories says that with ageing trees among the 50 different species in the national triangle, "it's now time to plan for the future".

In calling for public comment, the NCA's draft tree management policy management policy wants to open a discussion as to the most appropriate and resilient species for the climate challenges ahead.

Duncan Marshall, a heritage consultant on the NCA project, said "there will be change".

"There will be removals [of trees] and there will be replacements," he said.

"We want to be able to present to future generations the same qualities and same aspects to this treescape that we enjoy today".