At the Ordinary Council Meeting on Tuesday 8 September 2020, Council adopted the Urban Forest Strategy and Action Plan.

The aim of the Strategy is to increase the city’s tree canopy to 30 per cent by 2040 which will start with the planting of more than 50,000 trees in the next five years, contributing to the health and wellbeing of the Hobsons Bay community.

The ‘urban forest’ refers to all trees, of all varieties (including exotics, natives, deciduous and evergreens of varying sizes) located on both public and private land. This would include avenues of trees, individual trees, street trees and tree groves across Hobsons Bay.

Currently, Council manages over 76,000 street and park trees with a current canopy cover of about 7.5 per cent. The target of 30 per cent canopy cover in the next 20 years will be achieved by increasing the tree canopy across public parks, streets and private residential zones to 40 per cent and industrial zones to 20 per cent.

Click here to see the final version of the Strategy and Action Plan.

For more information on the Urban Forest Strategy, visit www.hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au/urbanforeststrategy.