Town of Bassendean planning to check what trees residents have in backyards and offer incentives to keep them

An eastern suburbs council is considering checking what trees people have in their backyards.

Town of Bassendean councillors backed a proposal from former deputy mayor Renee McLennan at her last council meeting on October 17 before retiring to seek a cost estimate of auditing trees on private properties in the Bassendean town centre.

They also backed a proposal to investigate what incentives the town can offer property owners to keep trees on their property that are listed on the town’s significant tree register.

The proposals come after the council recently backed Cr McLennan’s proposal to amend the town’s planning scheme to require property owners to seek council permission before pruning their backyard trees.

CEO Cameron Woods warned in a report the tree audit would take up a lot of staff time, lack of access to private property could limit its success and it could cost up to $450 per tree.

“That’s the quote we’re currently paying for a qualified arborist to ensure trees that are going on to the significant tree register comply with the definitions,” he said at the meeting.

“We have tried on two occasions to secure those services (of a qualified arborist) and have failed, so at this stage the actions in our tree canopy plan are at risk of not being achieved.

“We just can’t fill a role. I don’t think we’re the only local government out there looking for these skill sets and they seem to be quite scarce.”

He said staff would look at sharing the position with other councils.

Community planning director Luke Gibson said a qualified arborist was not necessarily needed for every tree assessment but it would help when property owners objected to a tree being listed.

“It’d be good in some way to have the value of the tree quantified in some way via a formal assessment,” he said.

Mr Gibson said if property owners denied access to their land a “kerbside assessment” could be held if the tree was visible.

“Not being on the property would not be a fatal flaw,” he said.

Mr Woods said the town could check if ratepayers were happy for it to offer incentives for tree retention as part of its review of its tree canopy action plan.

“Whilst the Town continues to advocate and lobby for legislative change via WALGA and its local member, it is considered that ratepayer funds are currently best used for the planting of trees on Town-owned and managed land,” his report said.

In her proposal, Ms McLennan said WA had the weakest protections for mature trees on private property of all Australian States.

“Local governments are working hard to increase canopy on public land, investing heavily in street trees and planting in reserves,” Ms McLennan said.

“However, the majority of canopy loss is occurring on private land.

“Despite council’s endeavours over recent years to have regulation of mature trees on private land included in our local planning scheme, these efforts have been hampered by a lack of support at a State Government level.

“Trees that have taken decades to grow and which deliver huge environmental, social and economic benefits can disappear in hours without any thought to the consequences for our community.”

She said at the moment having a tree on the register did not give property owners any benefits.

An option available to the town was a significant tree assistance policy similar to the City of Vincent.

“Property owners may be eligible for financial assistance for work associated with the listed tree through the city’s trees of significance incentive fund,” Ms McLennan said in her proposal.

“Funds can be used for remedial pruning, crown thinning, pest control or the like, or the provision of advice from a qualified arborist.”

Corporate services director Paul White told the council at a briefing in September he could not give an estimated cost of the audit as it could be carried out several ways, one of which was aerial surveys.

“It might be suitable for us to do a desktop audit ourselves, which would be quite cheap, but if we need to go out and walk the streets with an arborist or staff to take photos, then that opens up other issues around staff and private property,” he said.

“If we’re going to solve that issue, I think we’re going to need to substantially increase our pay rate to attract somebody or we need to go to contract and just pay on an hourly basis.”