Many urban forest strategies that were developed before 2020 have aspirational targets. We want to ensure we develop achievable, evidence-based targets.

Various factors are involved in predicting future canopy. This is trickier in urban areas like Port Phillip, due to:

• Conflicts with underground utilities and regulations on tree planting, which need to be considered when we predict future canopy cover.
• Limited control over private land which makes up over 50% of our city.

To set realistic targets for tree canopy, we'll be creating detailed precinct plans (mentioned in Action 3). These will analyse each neighbourhood to determine achievable canopy cover targets, ensuring we’ve got trees where we need them the most. These precinct plans will also guide specific on-the-ground initiatives to increase tree cover. Developing these precinct plans will be a top priority once the overall Urban Forest Strategy is approved.

The Urban Forest Strategy will set a 15-year vision for Port Phillip’s Urban Forest in 2040, so we know what we are working towards. It will include a set of Principles that will help guide our decisions.

It will also be supported by a 5-year action plan that will outline the specific short-term initiatives that Council and the community can take to work towards the Vision. This may include actions to:

• further green Council land
• support residents to green their properties or neighbourhoods
• strengthen protections for trees and vegetation on private land.

A new 5 year action plan will be developed in 2029.

Council can’t do it alone…over 50% per cent of the land in our City is privately owned, so everyone in the community has an important role to play.

An ‘Urban Forest’ is the term used to refer to all the trees and vegetation in an urban area. In Port Phillip, all the trees and plants on public and private land make up our urban forest. This includes:

• trees, shrubs and groundcovers in home gardens
• green roofs, walls and facades
• nature strips, medians and roundabouts
• parks and reserves
• trees and plants in shopping strips, car parks and industrial areas.

An Urban Forest has many important functions and benefits for humans:

• Shade and cooling – a healthy Urban Forest, particularly large canopy trees, can help keep people, homes and neighbourhoods cool. It can help to mitigate the ‘urban heat island effect’ where the built environment absorbs and reflects heat from the sun, making our neighbourhoods hotter.
• Mental health and wellbeing – a healthy Urban Forest makes it more enjoyable for humans to be outside, go for a walk or socialise. This has significant benefits for our health and wellbeing.
• Supporting biodiversity and wildlife – a healthy Urban Forest with a diverse range of vegetation helps support local wildlife and maintain our local ecosystems.

• Providing food – the Urban Forest can be a great, sustainable source of food
• Clean air and waterways – the Urban Forest plays an important role in filtering the air we breathe. It also helps to capture, retain and filter water so it is absorbed into the ground and keeps our waterways clean.

In Port Phillip we are faced with many challenges that impact our Urban Forest. These include:

• a changing climate
• housing development
• competing uses for space as our population grows
• the natural lifecycle of our existing trees.

An Urban Forest Strategy will ensure we have a long-term, strategic focus on protecting and enhancing our Urban Forest in the face of these challenges.

In 2011, Port Phillip was one of the first Cities to develop an Urban Forest Strategy, sparking recognition more broadly of the importance of greening urban areas.

We’ve implemented nearly all of the actions in that Strategy, and since then a lot has changed in our city and in contemporary ‘greening’ practice.

In 2023, we want to build on the achievements so far and incorporate more advanced urban greening practice to continue to be bold and set the benchmark.

This work on the Urban Forest Strategy will not impact the Nature Strip planting Guidelines. The Nature Strip Planting Guidelines were approved in 2022 following significant community engagement. These will not be reviewed as part of this process.

Greening is another term used to refer to increasing the amount of living green trees and vegetation across our City.

Biodiversity is the variety of all plants, animals and microorganisms, their genes, and the ecosystems they live in. The more biodiverse our Urban Forest, the healthier our environment and the more wildlife, insects and organisms it supports.

The Council Plan's Strategic Objective Sustainable Port Phillip includes the following:

"The City is actively mitigating and adapting to climate change and invests in designing, constructing and managing our public spaces to optimise water sustainably and reduce flooding (blue/green infrastructure).

We will provide urban forests to increase tree canopy, vegetation, greening and biodiversity and reduce urban heat, in line with Council’s Greening Port Phillip and Act and Adapt strategies, prioritised within available budgets each year."

The Council plan includes a specific action to commence update of the Greening Port Phillip Strategy 2010:

"XX"

Links with other strategic documents:

Places for People: Public Space Strategy 2022 – 2032 includes a key short-term action to update GPP:

"The new GPP will deliver an integrated, long-term framework, to guide the planning, provision, protection, integration and management of the urban forest across Port Phillip."

Move Connect Live: Integrated Transport Strategy (2018-28) and Act and Adapt Sustainable Environment Strategy (2018-28) also include greening actions.