Dr Greg Moore OAM Leads Campaign to Transform Victoria's Tree Canopy

Former Melbourne University academic and globally recognised botanist and ecologist, Victorian, Dr Greg Moore OAM, is spearheading a campaign to bring important change and improvement to Victoria’s tree canopy.

Community support is vital to send a message to Victoria’s political leaders and deliver an easy win for the environment.

We are asking Climate Change Minister Lily Dambrosio to vote for common sense and immediately implement the original proposal. 

Trees provide substantial community, individual and environmental benefits. These  include visual amenity, shade, psychological and physical well being, carbon sequestration, improved air quality, flora and fauna habitat.

“The Victorian Government is sleep walking into climate change. This is a well thought through, sensible proposal which delivers an easy win for the environment by adding $1 Billion of social and ecological value in additional tree canopy.”

Globally recognised botanist and ecologist, Dr Greg Moore OAM

The cooling effect of trees is our best weapon to counter the impact of global warming on our quality of life. They mitigate the Urban Heat Island effect which threatens the liveability of our urban spaces. The extremes in our weather caused by global warming are increasing with both more droughts and more floods forecast. Trees directly contribute to reducing water runoff, erosion and flooding.

Further community benefits include:

  • Community cohesion and socialising
  • Reduced healthcare costs through faster recovery times
  • Reduced crime rates
  • Increased retail and tourism through placemaking, beautification, and shopper dwell times 

There are direct and indirect benefits for households and individuals associated with tree canopy.  Some of these have been dimensioned economically and some have been recognised strategically such that they form recommendations in urban forest strategies. They include:

  • Improved health and well-being
  • Increased property values
  • Electricity savings due to shade, especially over houses and air conditioners
  • Water saved by reduced electricity usage
  • Reduced skin cancer risk through shading walkways, especially to schools 

Trees provide substantial environmental benefits, sometimes referred to as “eco-system benefits”. These include carbon sequestration and storage and improved air quality in urban environments through their ability to remove nitrous oxides and other pollutants.

Critically, they provide flora and fauna habitat and the opportunity for enhanced biodiversity in the broader environment. Not only do they provide nesting places hollows for birds but for sugar gliders and more. Even when they’ve fallen over or into waterways, they provide homes for lizards and fish.

Best practice urban planning now includes the concept of treed fauna corridors to facilitate both habitat creation and diversity.