Perth Voice Interactive

THE Greens are promising to double Perth’s tree canopy by 2040 under an “urban forest” plan.

Various councils like Vincent, Perth and Bayswater have policies to increase the dire coverage of trees over barren streets, but Greens WA senator Scott Ludlam reckons the issue is so serious it needs federal attention.

Bushland lost

Perth’s lost 75 per cent of its bushland and about a third of what’s left is at risk.

The Greens say this increases the intensity of heatwaves, which kill more Australians than any other natural disaster.

Climate change modelling suggests there’ll be twice as many heatwaves in Australia by 2050.

The main measures in the Greens plan are:

• protecting remaining bushland;

• planting green trails through Perth’s arteries;

• auditing trees every three years to measure canopies and health;

• a city-wide strategy to replace bitumen and concrete with turf, garden beds and rain gardens to reduce heat retention and runoff into rivers; and,

• $1.2 million a year to facilitate at least 10 per cent of buildings to have a ‘green’ roof, wall or facade.

Flashy graphics show people will have to give up a bit of their front lawn to reach the canopy target (something that could see blood in the streets given the Aussie sense of ownership over a patch of Sir Walter), but the policy outlines this would be via encouragement.

Aboriginal elders have been brought in to help design the plan and it sets aside $800,000 a year to engage elders to help map out where the urban forest will go and work in cultural trails.