Draft Tree Management Strategy

The draft Tree Management Strategy is a significant achievement by Council.
Trees are critical community infrastructure that become more and more important in the face of increasing heat and big rainfall events.
Notably, this Strategy does not apply to trees on private land, which are regulated under the Yass Valley Development Control Plan and applicable planning legislation.
The recommendation to improve tree retention by refining and strengthening the Yass Valley Development Control Plan (DCP) is entirely laudable. However, the devil will be in the promulgation of this policy and ultimately its enforcement.
In addition, this is a management strategy for urban areas of the Yass LGA, as it does not mention rural areas. This needs to be addressed as tree loss in agricultural areas is high, with little discernible appetite from larger landholders to re-create tree cover.
The creation of a Significant Tree Register to protect historic, culturally important, and culturally modified trees is to be applauded and progress on this is eagerly awaited.
There needs to be clear, accessible guidance on the destruction of trees on private property. It should be a clear requirement that assessment of trees be evidence-based and carried out by qualified arborists with greater knowledge and experience than the simple two-day course such as the TRAQ. Too often, tree loppers have been the ones providing advice on tree management to property owners. Possession of a chain saw and a cherry picker does not make an arborist.
The establishment of a Significant Tree Register to protect trees of historical, cultural, and environmental importance is an excellent initiative but needs to cover the important trees that exist on private land as well.
Formation of a Green Space Community Advisory Committee to provide ongoing expert and community input regarding Council green spaces would be a welcome development. Progress on this development is eagerly awaited.

Good on Council for making the effort to develop tree management strategy - clear policy statements help with the effective and efficient running of any organisation and provide confidence to ratepayers that there interests are taken into account.

My only comment relates to the name of the document. As the document itself states, it is a tree management strategy for urban areas of the shire, it does not mention rural areas. A simple edit of the title could be "Urban Tree Management Strategy". This would allow for a companion strategy for tree management in Rural Areas.

There are many serious and significant vegetation management issues affecting the rural areas of the shire that are also deserved of a consistent policy approach. Currently, Council staff will not address any issues because they are fearful of retribution for tacking action without a policy.

Representation will be made to council in the near future to explain some of the problems and request that consultancy funding be sought to develop a policy.

Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the draft tree management strategy. On behalf of the Gundaroo Common Trust, we note that the three significant areas of public open space in Gundaroo (the Gundaroo Common, the Police Paddock, and the Gundaroo Park) are managed by local bodies and are incorrectly designated in the draft strategy (part 1, page 38) as “Council Managed Public Open Space” The Gundaroo Common is a NSW Crown Reserve managed by the Gundaroo Common Trust under the Common Management Act 1989 (NSW)\; the Village Police Paddock is managed under licence by the Gundaroo Community Association (GCA) through the NSW Department of Lands; and the Gundaroo Park is a NSW Crown Reserve managed by the Gundaroo Park Land Manager Board under the Crown Lands Act 2016 (NSW). None of these are managed by the Council.

For information, in 1991 and 1992, the Gundaroo Common Trust undertook a number of significant tree plantings on the Common with follow up minor plantings since that time. The Trust is very supportive of tree planting in public spaces and is very happy to cooperate with the Yass Valley Council in future tree planting activities on the Common.

1. A full and comprehensive Strategy , but can we afford it ! ,fully support the establishment of SIGNIFICANT TREE REGISTER .

Thank you for preparing these strategies. On balance, I think they provide a strong foundation for improving tree cover across the local government area.

For the recommended tree species list, could Chinese elm (Ulmus parvifolia) please be included? Chinese elms are attractive trees that grow well in our local conditions, as demonstrated by the healthy specimens in Banjo Paterson Park and at the Dutton Street entrance to Mount Carmel School. I raised this species during the community consultation evening, but it does not appear to have been included in the draft list.

In my view, Yass township should be the principal planting priority under the strategy and its implementation plan. Within the proposed priority planting area for Yass, I recommend prioritising Church Street, Dutton Street and the smaller streets connecting them with Comur Street.

These streets form important pedestrian routes for children and families travelling to and from Berimba Public School, Yass Montessori Preschool, Little Kindy Early Learning Centre and Mount Carmel School. Prioritising these routes would provide much-needed shade, improve pedestrian amenity and help create safer and more comfortable walking connections.

The Lead Street bus interchange should also be identified as a priority location. The area between the Clubhouse Hotel and Church Street is dominated by concrete and has limited shade. Planting appropriately positioned large-canopy trees would substantially improve shade and amenity for students, commuters and other people waiting for buses.

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For the tree removal policy - one tree planted for one tree removed fails to consider the size, age, canopy etc of the tree that is removed. In most if not all cases of significant tree removal a single replacement planting will come nowhere near replacing what is lost and even if it does eventually, it may take 80 years to finally do so. This needs more analysis.
For implementation of the Tree Strategy I strongly support significant strengthening of the development control documents to ensure consistency. I think they need to be implemented together. Thank you.