Were you at the 19th National Street Tree Symposium? Tell us how we did

To ensure Melbourne and Victoria’s regions remain vibrant economies and great places to live, learn and play, the Victorian Planning Authority focuses on land-use and infrastructure planning for strategic sites and high-growth precincts. Throughout 65 completed urban renewal, greenfield and regional projects and another 44 in progress, increasing attention is being paid to green and…

As our cities and suburbs continue to grow, green space is in decline. But does this have to be the case? Josh will discuss how urban densification can present opportunities for creative renewal and biophilic regeneration for improved liveability and sustainability. Dr Josh Byrne Josh Byrne is an environmental scientist, author, television presenter and research…

Many Councils are developing new policies for their urban forest, with a focus on increasing canopy cover, species diversity and improved tree management.  As Councillors and senior management develop a greater understanding of the importance of trees and a desire to act, it is critical that momentum is maintained for the delivery of policy objectives.…

While many Australian cities have ambitious targets to increase tree-canopy cover, many municipal governments also spend millions of dollars removing urban trees every year. While large, old trees can be hazardous and, hence, are often removed, these are precisely the type of trees that provide the most significant services, including shade and wildlife habitat.  This…

This presentation will explore the historical development of urban forestry in Australia since the 1970s. It will place the trajectory of urban forestry in the context of global economic change and the shifts in environmental problems and politics. It will describe three urban forest ‘projects’ defined by different, but overlapping styles of manifesting the urban…

The delivery of tree maintenance and related services can have a major impact on the success of urban forest strategies and policies that a Council may have. Local government can’t do it alone, we often need to form and maintain good relationships with contractors and consultants to get the outcomes we need. So what is…

This demonstration session, using terrestrial laser scanning, will provide: Up close and personal observation of ground-based LIDAR equipment; Use of the equipment to collect LIDAR data of a tree and some understorey; Viewing of the collected point (via cloud) on a laptop; Looking at interpretation of results; Discussing applications of the technology, including feeding data…

Trees play an essential role in the urban environment but how can the benefits they deliver be better integrated into the planning process? This talk will report on the results of the study “Where should all the trees go?” funded by Hort Innovation. In the study we aimed to benchmark progress on the amounts of…

    Professor David Ellsworth David is Professor of Plant Eco-physiology at Western Sydney University. He leads a cutting-edge team of scientists who seek to understand how plants function in relation to the environment they live in, and how they respond to urban stresses such as heat, and more broadly to environmental change.  David has…

Alex and Dean’s case-study discussion will examine the Adelaide Oval Fig Tree Plaza project. To say the project brief was testing from the outset is a major understatement, as the cultural heritage significance of the Fig trees was deemed vulnerable.  Resolution of project outcomes was devised through effective conversations, good collaboration and passionate perseverance. The…

November 2018 marks the centenary of Armistice Day, 1918 – an end to World War 1. To mark it, an Australian contingent will travel to France to attend ceremonies and contribute to an international conference on avenues of honour. This paper gives an overview and case studies of our globally-significant collection of war memorial Avenues,…

In 2017 i-Tree Eco software was used to quantify the environmental benefits of over 1200 Arboretum trees (half the collection), representing 601 species in 146 genera. The software employed field data collected by volunteers, local climate and air pollution data, and species characteristics.  The full report is available from https://www.itreetools.org/resources/reports/WaiteArb_iTree_2017.pdf. An online map of the…

Trees are some of the most enduring elements in our landscapes. Not only do they communicate their own stories through the richness and subtleties of their body language, but they also tell tales about us, how we lived, what we value and our aspirations for the future. Many of us will be remembered for our…

Streets are for people, however over the last 40 years, the artform of making them has been virtually lost. What used to be street making, has become mini-road design. All the financial and intellectual effort goes into making streets suitable for cars and trucks and as a result, humans no longer feel comfortable spending time…

It is surprising that all of the Australian Standards that have directly related to arboriculture have been controversial in one way or another. The proposed standards on Amenity Tree Value (AS Various Drafts) hold the record for Standards Australia for an unresolved standard at nearly 30 years, before it was abandoned. The Pruning of Amenity…

As part of the Project goals to encourage the uptake of innovative engineered spaces for growing healthy, long-lived trees in paved urban areas, TREENET now offers the opportunity to share your experiences and knowledge through our CASE STUDY web portal. In conjunction with sourcing some initial case studies, we are received some great feedback about…

No one is immune to growing, brokering, selling or purchasing and installing into the landscape container induced root defects. ‘Don’t Buy It Don’t Plant It’ is a journey into realisation of the highs and lows of establishing treescapes today. It also gently highlights that AS2303 does nothing as a desk document or when quoted in speech or…

Mobile mapping from apps and cloud-based technologies have a tree-mendous potential to increase the efficiency at which we survey, assess, maintain, and monitor the urban forest as arborists and natural area managers. This hands-on interactive demonstration will train participants on how to collect, query, manage, report on, and share dashboard analytics about urban trees using…

The talk will discuss Cool Streets, an initiative that combines scientific research with public engagement to deliver effective street tree planting to reduce urban heat and improve climate adaptation. This draws upon Libby Gallagher’s doctoral research that used a combination of new and existing modelling techniques to develop site specific models to ascertain street tree…

What does building resilience mean in the production nursery?  How does this equate to a good tree? When success cannot be guaranteed in the harsh, urban environment, what are the measures you should insist upon to ensure the greatest chance of success? Hamish will touch on AS 2303, but will discuss a number of measures…