Pop-up urban forest sprouts in city centre

Hobart residents flocked to a pop-up urban forest at the Elizabeth Street Mall in November to snag a free sapling and have their say on the development of a new city-wide urban tree strategy.

City arborists were also on hand with advice on how to properly plant and care for the young trees.

Hobart Mayor Anna Reynolds said the activation was part of a three-month community engagement blitz to help set the direction for urban tree maintenance in Hobart for the next five years.

“We want to hear from as many people as possible about how as a community we can plant more trees on private and public land and grow our urban tree canopy,” she said.

“We gave away 400 Tubestock trees across two days to encourage more people to plant a tree in their garden and help grow Hobart’s urban tree canopy.

“The City of Hobart has an ambitious goal of increasing our urban tree canopy cover to 40 per cent but we can’t do it on our own, we need the public to plant more trees in their own gardens to help us get there.

“We want people to plant a tree today for a brighter future tomorrow, create a more climate resilient city and help grow Hobart’s urban tree canopy.”

City of Hobart city greening lead Ruby Wolfe said a strong and healthy tree canopy was essential for a healthy and resilient city.

“While Hobart is surrounded by beautiful forests our city and urban areas are not doing so well, and some of our suburbs are even losing trees,” she said.

“Urban trees, whether planted on our streets, in people’s gardens or in our parks improve air quality and reduce flooding.

“Urban trees are also becoming increasingly important as shade providers and to help fend off hotter temperatures in the city and our suburbs as the climate warms.”