Trees play a vital role in cooling our suburbs, providing shade, supporting biodiversity and creating healthy, liveable neighbourhoods. More than half of our tree canopy is on private land, which means achieving our long-term canopy goals will only be possible with the involvement of residents, businesses and community groups.

We asked our community to review the draft Urban Forest Plan and Tree Asset Management Plan and share your feedback on how we care for, protect and grow our tree canopy across Holdfast Bay.

Thank you very much to everyone who shared their feedback and helped guide the future of a cooler, greener and healthier Holdfast Bay.

This consultation closed 5pm Thursday 14 May 2026

What we asked

We invited you to review the draft Urban Forest Plan and Tree Asset Management Plan and share your feedback on how we care for, protect and grow our tree canopy across Holdfast Bay.

As part of this consultation, we asked you to review and prioritise potential future actions. Your feedback helped us to understand which initiatives matter most to you and where our efforts should be focused in the years ahead.

What we heard

A total of 50 individuals made submissions during the consultation.

• 48 online submissions
• 2 hardcopy surveys

Overall, the plans received strong community support, with all six newly proposed actions well supported by respondents.

A total of 73 comments were received from 50 individuals, reflecting a wide range of views and experiences. Key themes included:

• support for increasing tree canopy,
• improving tree management,
• enhancing biodiversity, and
• recognising the important role private trees play in the urban forest.

Feedback also highlighted some of the challenges identified in the plans, including the impacts of urban development, the loss of trees on private land, and the effects of climate change on the future health and resilience of our urban forest.

The feedback confirmed that our community highly values trees and supports Council’s efforts to protect, manage and grow the urban forest for future generations.

Based on your feedback, we made minor changes to both documents. No changes were made to any significant components such as canopy targets, actions, finances or service levels.

Changes made in the Urban Forest Plan include:

• tree clinic action changed priority from medium to high
• date range for plan ‘2026-2031’
• updated definition of an urban forest to exclude native biodiversity planning, which is addressed through biodiversity plans
• references to ‘climate-resilient’ trees
• a reference to economic value of trees ($1 invest = $1.50 return)
• reference to losses associated with risk of inaction (not planting trees).

• grammatical changes and simplified language
• references to ‘climate-resilient’ trees
• a reference to tree hollows
• added an additional improvement program action to incorporate findings from a recently completed research project with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSRIO) – Enabling Resilient Asset Delivery (ERAD).

Next Steps

The Urban Forest Plan and Tree Asset Management were endorsed at the meeting of Council on 28 July 2026.

Both documents are now available on Council’s Tree Management webpage, along with an interactive map that provides a live snapshot of our urban forest.

New actions identified in the Urban Forest Plan that require additional funding or resources will be considered through Council’s future annual business planning and budget process.

Read the final Urban Forest Plan and Tree Asset Management Plan below: