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                    Tree management

                    Trees with yellow autumn leaves
                    With more than 80,000 trees valued at almost $800 million, Melbourne’s urban forest is one of our most important assets. As well as making our city a beautiful place to live and visit, our trees play a crucial role in keeping a healthy environment, helping to remove pollution and keep our city cool.

                    ​City of Melbourne’s trees are cared for by professional arborists who are qualified to assess and maintain a healthy urban forest.  Our tree management is guided by two key strategies: the Urban Forest Strategy and Nature in the City Strategy.

                    We do not have authority over trees on private property, except when they are afforded protection through the planning scheme, such as those listed on the Exceptional Tree Register.

                    Street tree clearance guidelines 

                    Managing trees in an urban environment sometimes means that pruning is necessary. Certain vegetation clearances are required from essential infrastructure. Our tree care team will undertake pruning to maintain those clearance specifications until the next scheduled assessment of the tree.

                    Graphic image of street tree and related clearance distances

                    Reasons for tree pruning

                    • Trees are pruned from powerlines in accordance with Energy Safe Victoria vegetation clearance requirements.
                    • Trees are pruned from roads in accordance with VicRoads requirements.
                    • Trees are pruned to maintain sight lines and clearance for road and pedestrian traffic.
                    • Trees may be pruned to provide clearance from buildings.

                    Standard pruning specifications

                    • 4.6 m above roads
                    • 2.5 m above footpaths
                    • 0.5 m from buildings.

                    Request a tree inspection or report a tree in need of maintenance

                    You can use the form below to submit requests and report issues relating to trees, such as fallen branches, tree roots causing damage, requests for maintenance and tree planting.

                    Ensure you review the street tree clearance guidelines before requesting any tree maintenance. 

                    If your request is about pruning a public tree to enable construction and development works, please email trees@melbourne.vic.gov.au.

                    For further information regarding trees and construction, visit Tree protection.

                    If there is any danger to the public or public space, please call us immediately on 03 9658 9658.
                    Track the progress of an existing tree maintenance report.
                    Enter report reference number:

                    Benefits of trees

                    Trees provide a wealth of benefits for our environment, our health, and our economy. They provide critical ecosystem services such as air and water filtration, shade, habitat, oxygen, carbon sequestration and nutrient cycling. 

                    At the city scale, our urban forest helps to adapt our city to climate change, reducing the impact of floods and the urban heat island effect.

                    Trees also provide amazing health and wellbeing benefits, providing a connection to nature that can sometimes be missing in urban areas.

                    Environmental, human, ecological and economic benefits of trees

                    Diagram showing the environmental, human, ecological and economic benefits of trees
                    View larger diagram (PDF 179 KB)

                    Maintenance of public trees

                    Our tree care team are trained and qualified arborists that undertake routine assessments of public trees across the municipality. Trees are assessed for their health, growth habit, structure, stability, growing environment and clearance requirements from infrastructure such as roads and powerlines.

                    Sometimes a tree assessment may identify a tree in need of maintenance and our tree care team will undertake this work as part of their daily activities. Any pruning that is scheduled for public trees is done in accordance with Australian Standard 4373-2007 pruning of amenity trees

                    Trees live in a delicate balance with their surroundings so it is important that pruning is limited to the minimum amount necessary to achieve the aim of the pruning. Over-pruning of trees can cause irreversible damage and create structural defects that can become hazardous as the tree grows.

                    Pruning creates a physical wound that can leave the tree susceptible to pests and diseases and may decrease the lifespan of the tree. For this reason, there are certain circumstances for which we will not prune trees. Further information can be found in the Tree Policy.

                    Tree planting program

                    As part of the Urban Forest Strategy implementation, City of Melbourne plants over 3000 trees per year to help us achieve our canopy cover and species diversity targets.

                    The planting season runs during the cooler months when young trees are more likely to establish well in their new environment, typically from April until September each year. Each new tree is placed on a two year monitoring and maintenance program to make sure it establishes in the landscape.

                    When a tree has to be removed and replanting is possible in the same location, we add the plot to our list of future plantings.  Sometimes there may be delays in replanting, for instance due to the time of year or availability of tree stock.

                    You can find out more about tree planting plans that are currently being implemented across City of Melbourne as part of the Precinct Plans.

                    Tree root damage and infrastructure

                    Tree growth is strongly influenced by below-ground conditions. Tree roots are opportunistic and will proliferate wherever moisture, aeration, nutrition and soil structure are favourable. Tree root growth in the urban environment is highly modified and is not governed by property boundaries. 

                    There are a number of common conflicts with tree roots in the built environment: 

                    Direct damage

                    Direct damage is the distortion of built structures as the growing tree root exerts pressure. Direct damage by tree roots is usually limited to light built structures such as pavements and low walls and can also be witnessed in buildings of sub-standard footings. 

                    Indirect damage

                    Indirect damage is the distortion of built structures as the growing tree root takes up soil moisture. Often there are multiple factors contributing to foundation movement and are seldom associated with tree root growth alone. For this reason, claims of indirect tree root damage must be accurately investigated.

                    Leaking pipes (as a result of poor construction, old earthenware, cracked and faulty joints and degradation) can create a moisture gradient that encourages tree root growth in the direction of the pipe. 

                    The property owner is responsible for the maintenance, repair and replacement from the legal point of discharge, usually near the property boundary kerb. The City of Melbourne should always be given the opportunity to inspect the pipes and offending tree roots prior to the property owner undertaking repair works.

                    City of Melbourne will seek to resolve tree root conflicts as follows: 

                    • All claims of tree root damage from public trees will be investigated. 
                    • City of Melbourne will seek practical solutions to reduce the risk of damage to infrastructure from public trees. 
                    • Tree removal will only be considered if no practical arboricultural solution can be found. 
                    • Every effort will be taken to ensure that replacement and future public trees will not themselves result in similar damage to built structures.
                    • If tree root growth causes foundation movement, City of Melbourne will seek a viable arboricultural solution to rectify the situation and to retain the public tree.
                    • Claims of property damage from tree roots must comply with City of Melbourne guidelines for submitting a claim.
                    • City of Melbourne will not remove public trees for unjustified claims of pipe or sewer damage from tree root activity.
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