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.