by Carla Caruso
Just weeks before State Government-contracted chainsaws are set to start tearing down dozens of mature trees in your Adelaide Park Lands, a Labor-chaired Parliamentary Committee has urged the opposite.
Parliament’s Environment, Resources and Development Committee has tabled an interim report on its inquiry into Adelaide’s urban forest.
The Committee’s Chair, Labor MP Jayne Stinson, says the interim report’s 13 recommendations “respond to the clear community call for urgent action on arresting the decline of the urban tree canopy”.
Labor’s Jayne Stinson, on ABC-TV News. Ms Stinson said, to protect Adelaide's tree canopy: "It's really not sufficient for us to cut down one tree and say well you can just plant another."
The inquiry began in late 2022, prompted by concerns about trees being felled for new housing developments and the impact of urban infill on our city’s liveability.
Earlier, a Conservation Council of SA study had found South Australia’s urban tree protection laws were among the weakest in the nation, and that Adelaide alone was losing about 75,000 trees per year.
Embarrassing the State Government
The Committee’s recognition of a “clear community call for urgent action” to protect trees will be an embarrassment for the State Government which is about to carry out plans to destroy hundreds of mature trees at two separate locations in your Park Lands.
Park 2
Dozens of trees are set to be felled in Denise Norton Park / Pardipardinyilla (Park 2) unless the State Government heeds calls to switch location for its proposed two-storey megalith aquatic and commercial centre.
Possums and koalas have been sighted in the trees that are destined for destruction in this Park. The State Government’s own consultants admit that these trees provide habitat for many native species.
The State Government has received more than 7,500 signatures on a petition, urging the selection of an alternative, win-win, brownfield site instead.
Park 27
The State Government is also proposing to chop down dozens of trees in Kate Cocks Park (Park 27) to make way for an eight-storey car park, alongside its proposed new Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
The Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek - charged with protecting National Heritage sites - called for public feedback on the State Government’s Women’s and Children’s hospital plans, with submissions closing on 31 October 2023.
Our submission to the Urban Forest Inquiry
In February 2023, the Adelaide Park Lands Association made a submission to the Committee’s inquiry. We wrote:
“If the Committee believes that it’s important to stop destruction of Adelaide’s urban forest canopy, then, at the very least, it should challenge the State Government over its existing (lack of) policies towards the Park Lands and their trees.
“The committee should urge the State Government to rethink its plans to attack hundreds of Park Lands trees.
“New public buildings can and should be located on repurposed brownfield sites, which would offer opportunities to increase tree plantings around the new buildings, rather than targeting Park Land sites containing many mature trees.”
Read our submission here:
“Hands Up for Your Trees” - a crowd in Denise Norton Park / Pardipardinyilla (Park 2) in support of dozens of trees targeted for destruction - and calling for an alternative brownfield site for the proposed new two-storey megalith Aquatic and commercial centre.
Recommendations
The first of the Committee’s 13 interim recommendations is to remove an exemption, in which a developer can legally remove a tree if it is within 10 metres of a house or a swimming pool. Other recommendations include:
Providing adequate funding for increased research into identifying resilient, future species for private and public land.
Tightening the definition of regulated and significant trees to better align with national standards, by significantly reducing the trunk circumference definition of both.
Strengthening the protection of urban trees by widening the definition of significant and regulated trees to include canopy cover measurement, as well as trunk circumference.
Greatly increasing the fee for legally removing a tree on a residential property.
Introducing a new, separate penalty for illegally removing trees or conducting illegal tree-damaging activities on a property, with the penalty amount set 10 times greater than the fee for legally removing a tree.
Setting up a new Urban Forest Fund for monies raised from legal and illegal tree removal – and using the funds on initiatives to grow the urban canopy, proximate to the area where the tree removal occurred.
Providing an annual report to both Houses of Parliament, by the Planning Minister, on the Urban Forest Fund.
Boosting funding for community-based tree planting and maintenance initiatives.
Allowing community and non-government groups to bid for funds from the Planning and Development Fund for open, green space and tree retention projects, not just councils, and
Significantly funding Arbor Day events across South Australia – a day in which individuals and groups are encouraged to plant trees.
A koala recently spotted in Park 2. Photo: Save Our Adelaide Park Lands.
The Environment, Resources and Development Committee will continue with its inquiry.
Its final report is expected in 2024.
