Homeowners could be paid hundreds, or even thousands of dollars a year for keeping large, native trees on their property under a new plan approved by an Aussie council .
The City of Canning, in Perth’s southeast, voted in favour of the proposal on Tuesday in a bid to preserve the area’s shrinking tree canopy. Under the scheme, landowners would be paid $200 for each registered tree every year.
“We’re incentivising people to preserve significant trees on their own private property,” Mayor Patrick Hall told 6PR Breakfast on Thursday. When given the example of a property owner who has six large trees on their land, Hall said as long as they meet the criteria, the owner would receive $1,200 per annum from the city “forever”.
The LGA has one of the lowest levels of tree canopy cover in Perth — less than eight per cent. As well as trying to preserve existing trees, the city has set a goal to plant more than 60,000 new trees over the next 20 years.
Mayor voted against tree preservation plan
The move was not unanimous, with Hall revealing it was he who voted against the plan — but not because he “hates trees”.
“I was the one person that voted against it, but not because I don’t like trees. It’s really about the governance of it. There were just too many questions for me that were unanswered, about the potential cost of it, the legality of it,” he said.
One of the mayor’s biggest concerns is that the scheme will favour wealthy residents on already established, leafy blocks, while unfairly overlooking those in smaller, newer developments.
“I’ve been watching social media , people are saying it doesn’t apply equally across the city,” he said. “Some people live on small blocks and are battling to pay their mortgages… whereas people in multi-million dollar properties in other parts of the city are the fortunate people that will benefit from this the most.
“As the mayor, the decision has been made, I now support the decision of the council , I have to, that’s the convention.”
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Only 'significant' trees eligible for payment
Under the plan, a registered tree cannot be removed without council approval, however it remains unclear what would happen if the property is sold.
“If an owner wanted to develop that property down the line and was hell bent on removing those trees from the register, we have no idea whether or not it would be successfully defended by the city at court,” Hall told 6PR Breakfast.
A nominated tree must be assessed before it can be added to the register, with strict criteria around what trees are eligible for a payment.
“They have to be a significant tree, they have to be a native tree, there’s a raft of different criteria there. Very large, old trees, they’re the ones that council is looking to preserve on private property.”
Currently, the 165 trees on the register are all on council land in streets or parks — none are privately owned. In a previous meeting, Councillor Ben Kunze argued private property owners are hesitant to register trees “due to a perception that the value of their property will be negatively impacted”.
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This article originally appeared on Yahoo News Australia at
https://au.news.yahoo.com/aussie-council-to-pay-homeowners-200-every-year-to-save-trees-225602459.html