An urban forest in the City of Belmont

Trees and canopy cover offer many benefits in both a natural landscape and an urban setting. These benefits include cooling, shade and clean air, filtration of storm water and a habitat for birds and other animals.

The City's Urban Forest Strategy was first developed in 2014 to provide a Best Practice framework for policy, management plans and enhancement of our urban forest into the future. 

Read the City of Belmont Urban Forest Strategy

The Canopy Plan 2019-2024

In 2019, the City released The Canopy Plan to formalise the importance of planning for trees and canopy cover in the urban environment.

The Canopy Plan aims to meet a range of key objectives, including to:
 

• Build internal capacity to incorporate the urban forest into the City’s policies, processes and procedures to help retain, create and enhance canopy cover across the City;
• Develop partnerships and support research to retain, create and enhance canopy coverage in City projects and programs;
• Support research to consider the risks surrounding Urban Heat Island Effect, future climate scenarios, canopy provision and canopy loss;
• Promote the importance of the urban forest and deliver educational programs to build community awareness.

The actions outlined in the Plan are designed to support local biodiversity values and deliver better urban forestry outcomes, which can lead to a better urban environment for everyone. The City will manage, monitor, review and report on the effectiveness of the Plan.

Read The Canopy Plan 2019-2024

Council decisions about trees

The City’s commitment to preserving and enhancing the growth of the urban forest is outlined in the City's Urban Forest Policy, which was endorsed by Council in 2019. 

The Policy is designed to help the City:

• Engage and work collaboratively with the community and key stakeholders to implement the City’s urban forest vision;
• Manage trees as a collective (rather than as individuals) to retain and enhance a diverse, healthy, low-risk and sustainable urban forest;
• Adopt a design philosophy for projects to focus on creating a pleasant environment for pedestrians, including landscaping and shade trees;
• Increase canopy cover within streetscapes, public open space and City-managed land with no net loss of canopy cover on this land;
• Implement current industry best practices and standards to help trees grow to their full arboricultural potential.

This Policy is used to guide decisions related to planting, pruning, removing, retaining, replacing and protecting both street and reserve trees.