Urban Forest Strategy

Across both public and private land, pressures on the Town’s urban forest are increasingly apparent.

The rate of urban deforestation across Perth has been rapid and the loss of urban tree canopy is having both a direct and indirect impact upon the quality of health and amenity enjoyed by residents.

In 2016, the Town of Victoria Park had a canopy cover of 10% of land area -  one of the lowest in Perth and significantly less than is required for a healthy urban environment.

Community concerns about this trend resulted in the development of the Town’s first Urban Forest Strategy (UFS).

The UFS is a community-initiated and driven process - endorsed by Council in September 2018 - which identified the need to expand and better manage trees within the Town - both on public and private land. 

Together with a Working Group, the Strategy was then translated into an Implementation Action Plan (IAP) 2019 - 2024 - setting out how the Town and the community will work together and implement actions to deliver a target of increasing the Town’s tree canopy cover from 10% to 20%.

The Council has allocated $1 million from the 2019/20 Annual Budget to implement the Urban Forest program.