The ACT’s first Urban Forest Strategy was released on 30 March 2021 and will guide the growth of our urban forest and maintain a resilient, diverse and sustainable tree canopy.

The release of the Urban Forest Strategy 2021-2045 follows community engagement undertaken last year to seek feedback on the vision, objectives and actions of the draft Strategy. Over 240 people including interested community groups had their say by completing a survey or providing a written submission.

The community were very supportive of the vision, objectives and actions of the Strategy, with 92% of respondents supporting the vision, 97% either fully or generally supportive of the objectives and seven of the nine actions in the Strategy highlighted by respondents as a key priority.

The consultation report is available in the Document Library.

Thank you to everyone that had their say and contributed to the Strategy’s development. An implementation and evaluation plan will now be developed to ensure the immediate, short, medium and long term actions are completed, tracked and evaluated.

We heard your thoughts and ideas for the ACT's Urban Forest Strategy including suggestions on how to enhance our urban forest to meet the tree canopy target.

You had YourSay by reading the draft Urban Forest Strategy 2020-2045 and:

• completing the survey
• emailing a submission to communityengagement@act.gov.au

The Urban Forest Strategy 2020-2045 sets out the ACT Government's vision for a resilient and sustainable urban forest that supports a liveable city and contributes to the wellbeing of the community in a changing climate.

The Strategy has been developed alongside the ACT Planning Strategy 2018, ACT Climate Change Strategy 2019-2025 and the Living Infrastructure Plan.

The strategy sets out six key objectives.

1. Protect the urban forest.
2. Grow a resilient forest.
3. Balance and diversify the urban forest.
4. Take an ecological approach and support biodiversity.
5. Develop infrastructure to support the urban forest and liveability.
6. Partner with the community.

We invited the community to provide feedback on the draft Urban Forest Strategy 2020-2045, including the key objectives it aims to achieve and the actions that must be taken to ensure the urban forest prospers.

Feedback from community engagement activities undertaken in 2019, including the review of the Tree Protection Act and call for suggested tree planting sites, was incorporated into the development of the draft Strategy.

Community feedback was incorporated into the final Urban Forest Strategy 2021-2045. For more details view the consultation report.