Engagement outcomes

Thank you to everyone who took the time to provide feedback during the consultation. Over 1307 visited this page and we received 538 survey responses and 18 people shared their stories and photos with us.

The feedback informed our report to Council on 16 July, providing an update on our urban forest target progress and program review.

We have a renewed focus on ensuring quality planting outcomes and maintaining our commitment to planting 100,000 trees by 2037.

We are seeing an increase in canopy cover in our urban areas, particularly where we have focused our plantings in the suburbs that need it most, as part of our successful Suburb Improvement Program.

From the feedback provided, we heard that:

• Community support for planting appropriate trees in their street remains consistently strong at 90% overall. What is deemed to be an ‘appropriate’ tree is diverse (e.g., native vs non-native). There has also been an increase of those that wish to see trees retained in their streets (76% in 2017 compared to 83% in 2024).
• Almost 95% of respondents were supportive of more trees in parks and reserves, with almost 80% responding ‘strongly agree’. This is up from 91% in 2017. Fewer than 1% of respondents did not support planting more trees in parks and reserves.
• Feedback around the existing maintenance and survival of trees planted (in both streets and parks) was raised throughout the survey. This included vandalism, perceived lack of watering and survival of trees. There was a general desire from the community to see trees appropriately maintained, watered, and replaced as needed.
• 60% of respondents had noticed more trees planted in their neighbourhood. Most of those were from suburbs that have been the focus of recent targeted planting programs.
• Approximately 70% of respondents would be willing to plant a tree on their property. Those that wouldn’t, identified that they already had sufficient trees, a lack of space, or the fact that they were renting as barriers to planting. Some were unsure and would like more assistance with planting and selecting the right species. There was also interest in planting other vegetation apart from trees.

View the community engagement feedback report for full details.