We heard your thoughts and experiences on how to improve the current Tree Protection Act 2005 which outlines how we protect individual trees on leased land in the ACT. We also heard your ideas on how to enhance our urban forest to meet the tree canopy target.

More than 270 people from a wide cross section of the community had their say in 2019 by reading the discussion paper, filling out a survey and emailing us.

Key findings were that people wanted:

• greater flexibility for lessees to manage trees on their property
• recognition of the value of a strong tree canopy
• holistic management of the urban forest
• improvements to the current tree damage application process
• changes to criteria for tree removal
• replanting and a no net loss offset scheme to increase the tree canopy.

Community feedback was used to help develop the Draft Urban Forest Bill 2022.