The minister did not stand in front of, say, any of the 27 mature native trees in the proposed next stage of Denman Prospect adjacent to Bluetts Block.

Here the developer has applied for exemption from environmental assessments to facilitate clearing the site for streets and houses.

Perhaps those trees, some of which are 100 to 150 years old, are not in the picture because the government's draft action plan won't stop most or all of them from being lost.

Canberra's beauty and amenity is enhanced by its links to natural spaces and wildlife.

Mature native trees are fundamental to this biodiverse place. They improve the health of the land and protect biodiversity providing a critical resource for wildlife for nesting, roosting, feeding and shelter and providing "stepping stones" across the landscape for a large variety of species which might aid species adaptation to climate change.

It takes up to 100 years for native trees to achieve the exceptional and unique biodiversity values of their maturity.

Predictions are that hollow-bearing trees (a surrogate for large mature native trees) might decline by 87 per cent over 300 years in urban green space under existing management practices.

Under a worst-case scenario, hollow-bearing trees might be entirely lost from urban green space within 115 years.

"Entirely lost" means extinction. We should ask ourselves: are we on a path to protection and recovery or extinction of our mature native trees?

The release of the draft action plan on the loss of mature native trees is welcome. However, it has taken over three-and-a-half years since the loss was listed as a key threatening process.

The scientific committee stated: "The priority management objective is to reduce [and restrict] the loss of mature native trees and its impact on threatened native species and to improve recruitment of native woodland tree species across the ACT."

Since that advice and until the draft action plan, we have lost thousands of mature native trees, a disproportionate amount due to land clearing for urban development.

The draft action plan says 21,000 mature trees (all types) were lost between 2015-20 (urban, rural, and reserve), on average 4200 mature trees per year.

Nearly 70 per cent of the loss was in urban ACT with greenfield suburbs losing the biggest proportions of mature trees. It seems tree losses are not being restricted.

Yes, we do lose mature native trees in the established urban areas. However, the draft action plan should primarily be focused on restricting the loss of mature native trees due to poorly-designed urban development.

The impetus for protecting mature native trees came from dismay with ACT minister Mick Gentleman's 2015 approval of the Williamsdale solar farm with the loss of 116 native trees mostly aged 100 to 150 years.

A February 2017 nomination from community environmental groups to list the loss of hollow-bearing native trees as a key threatening process was considered and then accepted by the ACT scientific committee.

In September 2018 "loss of mature native trees (including hollow-bearing trees) and a lack of recruitment" became the first threatening process listed under the Nature Conservation Act 2014.

Under ACT law, when the government accepts the science that there is a key threatening process it must then produce an action plan to deal with the threat.

"Protecting mature native trees, particularly when developing new suburbs and estates, is a first step in the action plan," Vassarotti says.

But then it seems only one of 30 proposed actions directly deals with "restricting'' loss of mature nature trees from urban development.

The biggest developer in the ACT is the ACT government and action 15 in the draft plan is as tough as it gets for urban development, which is very weak. In that action we get "should" when we need "must" and then something might be "considered proactively", whatever that means.

The draft action plan and media comments from government officials further mangle the message by branching out into other important but distracting issues - the urban canopy, cooling the city, changes to the territory plan to require more tree plantings at new development sites and encouraging the community to have a say on where more trees should be planted.

They might all be good initiatives, but they are not stopping the loss of our irreplaceable very old native trees.

Many of the proposed actions are premised on offsetting or requiring "recruitment" when mature native trees are cleared. These measures do not replace the losses for biodiversity.

Offsetting should be ruled out. Twenty trees that are five years old do not equal one mature tree that is 100 years old.

Maybe Vassarotti should have been photographed in front of a threatened old paddock tree to prompt us to think about how to protect it from poor government planning and inappropriate land clearing for another urban estate.