Sydney’s trees face ‘death by 1,000 cuts’
Margaret Hogg from Saving Sydney’s Trees campaigns for the protection of the city’s green canopy. Her work began when the former Liberal government cut down dozens of towering trees, some as old as 150 years, to make way for a light rail project in nearby Randwick. And she’s recently been aghast at hundreds more being removed from a golf course in nearby Rose Bay.
“These trees can live for hundreds of years, not just decades. They are a public asset and we’re losing them. It’s death by 1,000 cuts,” she said.
“This is just one tree on [Quail Street] but more will go. Councillors who aren’t completely behind their protection will simply say we owe it to our ratepayers to save them insurance money. Bugger the insurance money. We’re supposed to be building for a sustainable existence.”
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Discuss how and what we should ask councils to change in their approach to trees in :-
- general,
- embodied carbon,
- energy generation,
- development applications and the requirement of drastic changes and the positive impact of those changes on the climate, carbon and scio-economic issues such as rising house prices and shortage of rental and housing in general etc. etc.
What specific changes are we lobbying councils to make regarding :-
- Trees (e.g. preservation, planting, protection laws)
- Embodied carbon (e.g. reporting, reduction targets)
- to any new or existing development application
- Energy generation (e.g. solar requirements, community batteries)
- be able to discuss carbon absorption (trees) vs energy generation (solar panels and their inherent reduction in carbon creation through traditional methods of power generation)
- Development applications (e.g. approval process, sustainability metrics)
- How we can have a balance sheet on carbon foot print of the proposed development vs embodied carbon reduction methods
- carbon absorption requirement i.e. number of trees required to be planted by developer vs how many trees were cut
- also carbon absorption vs energy production space requirements not just on roofs but the utilising the 35% “green space” requirement imposed by almost all councils – but rarely adhered to post occupancy.
- Developers being able to utilize the 35% for additional housing on the site for their millennial and gen z children to have joint family homes to combat the soaring cost and shortage of housing
- Curbing urban sprawl
- We are aiming to provide policy recommendations and community action steps
We can start in our own backyard e.g. Sydney then NSW and then onto every council in Australia
