Minister for City Services Chris Steel helped to plant a mix of new trees and shrubs at Waramanga and put his support behind maintaining and protecting our urban forest. The Minister also sent a warning to those members of the community who damage or remove trees without approval and announced his directorate will be targeting its enforcement work.
“The ACT Government winter tree planting program has been completed with 608 trees in new homes across our streets, major road verges, parks and other open spaces,” Minister Steel commented “We manage one of the largest urban forests in Australia and the Government is responsible for more than 760,000 trees on public land throughout the city. The government also protects the trees across our city and I have asked my directorate to work with colleagues across government on a targeted enforcement program to ensure our most important suburban trees are the focus of compliance.”

The Minister said that Canberra is the bush capital and while most Canberrans love our treescape, we know that there are some irresponsible people in our community who do the wrong thing. The Minister added that the Government is committed to the protection of our urban forest. If you poison or cut down a regulated tree without approval, you are breaking the law. Residents are reminded to avoid damaging or removing trees in public areas including nature strips.
The Minister explained that residents who wish to seek approval for removal, pruning or replanting of street trees are encouraged to lodge a request through Access Canberra on 13 22 81. To substantially prune or remove private trees that are regulated under the Tree Protection Act also requires approval. This announcement comes ahead of a discussion paper on the review into the Tree Protection Act 2005 in the coming months which will ensure we have a compliance process that supports protection of important trees in our suburbs.