Urban forests information page
Hear about the many benefits of local trees and how urban forests enhance our lives
Listen to our Urban Forests event
- Dr Greg Moore
Snr Research Associate, Melbourne Uni, Burnley Campus
slideset here - Dr Judy Bush
Snr Lecturer, Urban Planning, Melbourne Uni
slideset here - Chris Spencer
Team Leader Arborist, City of Boroondara
slideset here - Amy Shaw
Coordinator Urban Biodiversity, City of Boroondara
slideset here
Interested in forests and want to help protect forest animals and foster urban biodiversity?
We’d love you to join Lighter Footprints’ Forests Working Group – sign up here!
Watch Dr Greg Moore and Dr Judy Bush here!
- Protecting urban forests blog – notes, quotes, slides and images.
- Facebook album with event pics, slides and expert links.
- You can watch the Urban Forests event on our YouTube full presentation Live
- Check out the 0nline agenda with useful links here
- Bluesky thread with full slidesets and notes here
Urban forests benefit communities
Keeping our city cool
Urban forests reduce the heat island effect
Local trees on our streets and gardens provide shade, reduce temperatures and boost our health.
- Urban forests combat the heat island effects reducing temperatures by up to 20°C in summer – shaded surfaces may be 11-25°C cooler than the peak temperatures of unshaded surfaces.
- Street trees shade front gardens and houses, significantly reducing UV light, and increasing comfort.
- Street trees shade pedestrians and cyclists, reducing temperatures and increasing health through boosting exercise levels and reducing stress
Urban heat island effect explainer
Most Australians live in cities and neighbourhoods with a low tree canopy suffer from what is known as the urban heat island effect leading to higher daytime temperatures, reduced night-time cooling and higher air pollution levels. Human health is impacted by heat exposure with symptoms including respiratory difficulties, heat cramps, exhaustion, heat stroke and even heat-related mortality. Vegetation provides natural cooling by producing shade and releasing water vapour into the surrounding air.
Street planting for shade and heat reduction
This Monash Uni guide explains the way trees reduce heat through transpiration as well as shade and provide detailed information on optimal street planting patterns in water sensitive cities.
Optimised street tree planting increases personal thermal comfort, reducing the impacts of reflected radiant heat as well as reducing the air temperatures. Trees can access deep water sources compared to other types of planting, increasing resilience, particularly when combined with storm water runoff access. They have a double benefit of reducing local carbon emissions and energy bills for neighbouring buildings.
Improving health and air quality
Urban forests reduce stress and help clean the air
Trees reduce airborne pollutants, and are essential to our health.
- Doctors for the Environment and the World Wide Fund for Nature-Australia have released a joint report “Trees: the forgotten heroes for our health” highlighting research on how trees are essential to our health and very survival.
- Street trees help increase our mental health, for instance scientists at The Nature Conservancy have found that one of the many benefits of urban forests is that they support good mental health and sense of wellbeing. “Access to public parks, creeks, wetlands and grasslands, and even street trees can produce a range of positive health outcomes including reduced stress and improved concentration and childhood development.”
- Trees help filter out airborne pollutants improving respiratory health
Trees reduce air pollution in cities
Traffic emissions and other fine particulate air pollution can cause serious health effects. Street trees can remove pollutants including ozone, nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides, sulphur dioxides, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide (CO2) – large healthy trees can remove between 60 and 70 times more air pollution than smaller trees.
Improving neighbourhood function and value
Urban trees increase amenity and foster walkable neighbourhoods
- Trees improve the value and appeal of our neighbourhoods and our properties
- Planting trees in streets, shopping strips and around parks is an effective way to mitigate urban heat and to encourage active transport (like walking and cycling), making these areas more welcoming and attractive for people. With more options for active transport, people get more exercise, use cars less and reduce emissions.
Trees increase property value, lower bills
A 2017 study focusing on three Sydney suburbs found a 10 per cent increase in street tree canopy could increase property values by $50,000 on average. And the shading effect of trees can reduce energy bills by up to $800 a year in Sydney.
Trees are a gift for future generations
As the Chinese proverb goes, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” By planting urban trees we can improve the liveability of our cities. But there is an urgency because our tree canopy is in decline. According to Dr Greg Moore, an urban tree expert and senior associate researcher at the University of Melbourne, “In Melbourne we are losing canopy at about 1 to 1.5 per cent per annum.” (The Age, 26/5/2025).
Preserving our natural world
Urban forests increase biodiversity and support our wildlife
Trees in our neighbourhood provide habitat and food for birds, animals and insects
- Victorian government tree planting guide – that will thrive in warmer and drier condition, and enhance amenity
- Boroondara is home to many indigenous native species which need habitat including 145 birds, 15 fish, 11 mammals, 47 invertebrates, 12 reptiles and 11 amphibians. There are also 244 indigenous plant species.
- Insect biodiversity is critically important and increasingly under threat – urban forests support insect life and pollination
Make your nature strip pollinator friendly
To convert your nature strip to a pollination friendly, more biodiverse environment check out Balwyn Rotary’s service. They are helping property owners in Boroondara beautify their nature strips ñ replacing the grass (and weeds!) with flowering native shrubs, grasses and groundcovers to attract bees, birds and butterflies. About 60 have been converted so far.
What can we do to protect our urban forests?
Boroondara is a hotspot for tree loss
Boroondara leads the nation in house knockdowns which typically clear the whole block of vegetation and prosecutions for illegal tree removals are at an all time high. In Boroondara, we typically lose about 1500 trees per annum from development and aging. The North East Link took about 4000 trees
Significant trees
Boroondara also has many significant trees with recognised value. They are protected under our Tree Protection Local Law and are listed in our significant tree register. They are outstanding trees that we have identified as ‘significant’ because of their impressive size, age, rarity, ecological value, or cultural and historical significance. They can be on private property or public land. There is an online searchable map of significant trees and residents are also able to nominate additional significant trees.
What can we do to protect significant trees
- New significant trees – one way residents can help increase Boroondara’s tree canopy is to nominate locations for new trees. This can be done online in a few minutes.
Join in local action groups
There are many benefits of joining a local group such as meeting like-minded people; learning about local plants, animals, natural history and water courses; making a concrete difference to tree canopy and biodiversity; and helping to combat climate change.
Tree planting itself can help create a sense of community – taking care of local areas helps to contribute to building stewardship for nature.
- Boroondara is fortunate to have 10 Friends groups working alongside Council to protect and enhance our native biodiversity.
- A particularly active local group is KooyongKoot Alliance which has over twenty Friends groups organised by creek catchment and working in the Gardiners Creek (KooyongKoot) catchment.
Protecting our urban tree canopy and biodiversity
Check out Boroondara’s chief arborist Chris Spencer and biodiversity lead Amy Shaw speaking at our Urban Forests event here.
Further Information
City of Boroondara
- Boroondara’s 2020 Tree Replacement Plan
- Boroondara’s 2024 Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan
- Objectives of the Boroondara 2024 Biodiversity Strategy Action Plan include “increase the area of land managed for biodiversity by one hectare every year” and “help residents and schools to plant 5,000 new native plants every year” Boroondara encourages to join local groups for opportunities to get involved.
State Government
- Victoria’s new Planning Scheme includes “Tree Canopy Objectives” Standard B2-7 requires a minimum canopy cover (10% or 20% depending on block size)
Other sources
- ArborCarbon Aerial Measure of Vegetation Cover 2022
Lighter Footprints Forest Working Group
- You are warmly invited to join the Forests Working Group – sign up here!
- Check in with the Forests Working Group blog for updates
Lighter Footprints
- How do they install nest boxes? Watch a 5 min video of Greater Glider Recovery Project launch here.
- Full presentation of Victoria’s Native Forest: State of Play here – check out our blog, and slide sets from Professor Lindenmayer, Sue McKinnon and Aawa White from Kinglake Friends of the Forest.
- Read more about forest action on our blog about Saving Forests, Ditching Gas event featuring Chris Schuringa from Victorian Forests Alliance.
- Check Lighter Footprints three page resource on the work of Dr Chris Taylor, Sarah Rees and the Great Forest National Park, with handy links, or their slide sets – Dr Taylor’s here, Sarah Rees’ here. You can also look at our Forests event blog here.
Victorian Forest Alliance
- Concise resource on adopting forests protection as climate policy – key points and links
- Victorian Forest Alliance website – state based peak body for forests policy and protection, with reports, maps, resources and news.
Forests information and action pages
- Visit Friends of Leadbeaters Possum, with information, legal and conservation efforts, and volunteering opportunities.
- Get active with WOTCH: “dedicated to protecting Victoria’s native forests through the use of citizen science, community engagement and advocacy”
- Visit Kinglake Friends of the Forest for more detail on the pivotal ‘Glider Case’ (and others) that underpinned Victoria’s new logging ban.
- Wombat Forestcare have laid the groundwork to the end of community logging in Victoria.
Find out more about the value of our forests
Although logging native forests have officially stopped, loggers are still at work, and large areas are being burned.
Listen to distinguished scientist Prof David Lindenmayer explain how disturbing forests increases flammability, including thinning and hazard reduction burns. We can protect our forests and forest animals. Watch this short video here.
Professor Lindenmayer
- Prof Lindenmayer on Victoria’s forests and the restoration challenge– video highlights here.
- Find out more on logging, fire risk, extinction risk and what we can do about it from this recent talk from Prof David Lindenmayer here.
- Green Carbon – the role of natural forests in carbon storage – Prof Brendan Mackey, Prof David Lidenmayer et al – Fenner School, ANU. One significant finding of this comprehensive study, is that retaining existing forest carbon stock would be worth “24 per cent of the 2005 Australian net greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors” (page 7), in other words, native forest logging has a massive impact on our annual emissions.
- Read more about Prof Lindenmayer’s beautiful book The Great Forest here. You can order it from Amazon, Readings or Dymocks.
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