Despite the pouring rain council staff managed to plant out 10 Flaxinus pennsylvanica “Cimmeron Ash” trees in the Gange Street Reserve and 14 Eucalyptus leucoxylon “euky dwarf” in the street.
“Residents will experience the benefits of the new trees in years to come as they grow and provide more shade during hot weather,” said Acting Director Infrastructure Michael Freeman. “The park will have shady places to sit and relax and the street trees will provide shade for cars, pedestrians and cyclists as well as helping to cool the homes in the street.”
“The benefits of a well-planned Urban Forest spread across the whole community,” said Mr Freeman. “More canopy cover from trees can assist with the reduction of your energy costs and can increase the value of your house and a well treed streetscape looks better.”
“Having cooler shadier streets in summer also encourages people to get out and about more which is good for physical and mental health,” he said.
“In 10 to 15 years we will see the benefit for the whole community from this Strategy. It’s certainly a very exciting project for Council to be involved in. By 2037 we aim to increase green canopy cover to 40 per cent.”
The Urban Forest is all urban vegetation such as Council owned street and park trees, the plants and trees in back and front yards, and the vegetation along urban waterways, in reserves and on other major landholder’s land.
Mr Freeman said the focus of an Urban Forest Strategy is deliberate planning for a greener, shadier city and providing the right trees in the right location for greater canopy cover.
The development of the Strategy involved the mapping of every street tree in Shepparton, Mooroopna and Tatura to gain an accurate record of where trees are located, missing, damaged or nearing the end of their life.
Mr Freeman said Greater Shepparton has approximately 37,000 trees in streets, parks and reserves with varied cover and an ageing tree population. Approximately 19,000 of these are in Shepparton, 6,000 are in Mooroopna, 4,000 in Tatura and 8,000 in other towns and locations.
More information at http://greatershepparton.com.au/council/major-projects/urban-forest-strategy
