Perth council considering PAYING people to keep trees

An eastern suburbs council is considering introducing financial incentives for people to save trees.

But it is also planning to check what trees people have in their backyards.

Town of Bassendean deputy mayor Renee McLennan plans to seek support at this month’s council meeting — her last before retiring — for staff to investigate what incentives it can offer property owners to retain trees listed on the town’s significant tree register.

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,” Cr McLennan said.

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

“Where the city contributes funds for any tree, the owner must enter into an agreement to repay the city if the tree is removed within a five-year period and in the city’s opinion the tree could have been retained.”

Her proposal is scheduled to be presented at the town’s October 17 meeting.

Cr McLennan also wants staff to investigate holding an audit of trees on private properties that could be included on its significant tree register.

It comes after the council backed Cr McLennan’s proposal to amend its planning scheme to require property owners to seek council permission before pruning their backyard trees.

Cr McLennan said WA had the weakest protections for mature trees on private property of all Australian States.

Perth also had the hottest summers and the least tree canopy of Australia’s capital cities.

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

“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.”

Cr Paul Poliwka said at a briefing session last month a desktop audit would capture the most amount of trees as cheaply and quickly as possible, but CEO Cameron Woods said councils were waiting for legal advice on the protection of trees on private property.

“I don’t see the evidence out there that says without this we’re going to keep losing trees because I don’t think we’re losing trees,” Mr Woods said.

“We should be in a better position come March to understand what the cost is and what our ability is to enforce these significant tree registers.”

Corporate services director Paul White told the council 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 aborist or staff to take photos, then that opens up other issues around staff and private property,” he said.

“We’ve failed on two occasions to be able to employ our own arborist.

“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.”