Council branches out to support tree management program

The City of Greater Geelong Council is supporting its commitment to plant one million new trees by 2030 and react quicker to fallen trees from severe storm events by adding more suppliers to its team.

Council has established contracts with six businesses to maintain trees on road reserves and council managed land, with the new panel to provide additional resources to support the in-house team during periods of increased workload such as storm events and when specialised equipment or skills is required.

The City is responsible for managing more than 70,000 street trees and around 40,000 park trees, as well as trees along rural roadways, reserves, waterways and bike trails.

Deputy Chair of the City Works, Parks and Gardens portfolio, Cr Belinda Moloney

The additional support would help strengthen the City’s tree management program.

We are thrilled to welcome these new businesses on board to form a panel which will provide support to our tree management team.

Our in-house staff does a wonderful job of maintaining Council assets and the provision of this panel will help complement their work.

The tree management unit undertakes maintenance tasks of council’s street and park trees, which involves formative pruning, pruning for powerline clearances, tree removal, stump grinding and tree planting and establishment programs.

These works are undertaken in accordance with the City’s Urban Forest strategy and tree policies, utilising a combination of in-house staff and contractors to manage the City’s tree assets.

Council has also established contracts with eight businesses to form a new panel for the supply of trees for planting in road reserves and on Council managed land.

The panel of suppliers will enable Council to source a wide variety of trees at different stages of development and ensure we always have access to the highest quality of stock that is available.

Kardinia Ward Councillor, Ron Nelson

The formation of the panel of suppliers would help the City achieve its aim of planting one million trees in the next eight years.

We are committed to planting one million new trees by 2030, which is a bold initiative and one we are proud to be aiming for.

This new panel of suppliers will provide additional support to our wonderful team in our efforts to achieve this goal and ensure the City is well stocked with the best available products possible.

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