Greater Geelong council has taken a step towards its commitment to plant one million new trees by 2030 and respond quicker to incidents involving fallen trees by adding more suppliers to its team.
The council voted to establish contracts with six businesses to maintain trees on road reserves and city-managed land at council’s meeting on April 26.
The panel, which includes Acorn Tree Services, Arbor Spray, Aspect Tree Management, Summit Open Space Services, Steven’s Specialist Tree Service and Tree Top Tower Hire, will also provide additional resources to support the city’s parks and gardens team during periods of higher workload, such as storm events and when specialised equipment or skills are required.
The council is responsible for managing more than 70,000 street trees and about 40,000 park trees, as well as trees along rural roadways, reserves, waterways and bike trails.
Works, parks and gardens portfolio deputy chair Belinda Moloney said the additional support would help strengthen the council’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,” she said.
“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 initiatives.
These works are undertaken in accordance with the council’s Urban Forest strategy and tree policies, utilising a combination of in-house staff and contractors to manage the council’s tree assets.
The 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 the council to source a wide variety of trees at different stages of development and ensure access to the highest quality of stock that is available.
The council has previously sourced trees directly from nurseries as required.
