Help us make the City of Charles Sturt greener, cooler, healthier and an even better place to live.

Our City is getting hotter from the impacts of climate change and the urban heat island effect. Trees provide cooling benefits, reduce heat-related illness, reflect heat and actively cool and clean the air. People need trees for their health and mental well-being. Trees also provide a sense of place and are critical to achieving biodiversity conservation.

Planting trees is an investment in the future of our City. The mature trees we enjoy today and benefit from today, were planted by those generations before us, many decades ago.

We propose an extended and intensive tree planting programme over many decades and we look forward to working with everyone in our community to grow the tree canopy across our City.

Our target is to reach a tree canopy cover of 25% by 2045. Tree canopy cover is currently 14%.

This is an ambitious target and one that Council is keen to lead. To meet this target we will need to work with residents, landholders, businesses and developers as a lot of the land within our Council area is privately owned. We can achieve 25% by 2045 if we work together to GROW our tree canopy cover.

Our Draft Tree Canopy Improvement Strategy provides a framework to deliver long-term, sustainable, and significant gains to the urban forest. Here are our six Guiding Principles:

1. Plant more trees.
2. Have a plan and set a target.
3. Protect more trees.
4. More tree maintenance and management.
5. Appreciate trees more.
6. Monitor and evaluate our progress (and change course if we need to).

In addition to completing the survey below, you can find out more about our Draft Tree Canopy Improvement Strategy by visiting https://www.yoursaycharlessturt.com.au/tree-canopy