Under duress

In Drouin, we have thousands of remnant and planted trees that are worth millions of dollars. The City of Melbourne Urban Forest Strategy uses a formula to calculate the monetary value of their street and parkland trees. When the formula is conservatively applied to some of Drouin’s remnant giant eucalypts, many of our big trees can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars – EACH!

Drouin's trees are the lungs of our town.

Drouin’s street and parkland trees contribute greatly to the liveability of our town - they make us healthier, improve our property values, lower our energy costs, provide habitat and biodiversity.

Some of our wonderful boulevards are under threat

BUT, our trees are under the combined threat of climate change, an ageing population, (trees, not people) and urbanization. It is a sad fact that we are going to lose a considerable percentage of our wonderful tree cover over the next several decades.

Many of our Ficifolias have reached maturity - how much longer will they survive?

Climate change

Longer, hotter and drier summers are stressing many of our green spaces. Some municipalities are exploring with water-sensitive urban designs that conserve storm water run-off rather than directing it into drains.

One simple and cost-effective technique being used is to cut holes in roadside curbs to direct water into root zones. Combined with a little ‘embankment’ engineering, this could be easily applied in numerous places in Drouin. Future road and street designs could incorporate some of these practical answers to giving our trees some added protection to the encroaching climate change scenario.

Much research concludes that tree planting, albeit on a large scale, could ameliorate the effects of climate change.

Perhaps one day, a painting or a photo is all we will have to remember our trees

Our trees add beauty, soften building lines, etc. Ever wondered what some areas of our town would look like without trees?

Ageing tree population

The age of many of Drouin’s remnant and planted trees is skewed toward the old age end of their life-span.

Without too much effort, a tree asset replacement program for our streets and parks could easily be devised and implemented as some sort of insurance against the sudden loss of many of our older trees that may well occur in the very near future. This may help ensure that our much-envied tree canopy is continued into the foreseeable future.

The Settlement Giant is estimated to be hundreds of years old, (size, location, hollows, etc), and must be in its twilight years.

Urbanization and trees

We all know the scenario – trees are cleared for a development and the replacement, (off-set), is either inappropriate – too little, poor species selection, etc – sometimes even non-existent or inexplicably, conducted in an area well beyond Drouin!

It has to be accepted that our town will expand exponentially, climate change is upon us and our trees are getting older. A well-planned sensitive tree asset program is essential, with policies and strategies that are strictly adhered to and not over-ridden by the likes of avaricious developers.

Further reading

The City of Melbourne Urban Forest Strategy.