Trees
Trees and the streetscape of the city is important to residents, visitors and Council alike.
Street trees provide enormous benefits to the community including physical, visual, environmental, social, and economical. City of Prospect manages approximately 14,500 street trees. Council has a proactive approach to the maintenance of these trees based on the following:
- age
- condition assessments
- new developments
- storm damage
- customer requests
If you would like any more information on trees within City of Prospect, please contact us on (08) 8269 5355 or email admin@prospect.sa.gov.au.
Street Trees
Street trees provide enormous benefits to the community including physical, visual, environmental, social, and economical. City of Prospect manages approximately 14,500 street trees. Council has a proactive approach to the maintenance of these trees based on the following:
- age
- condition assessments
- new developments
- storm damage
- customer requests
Street Tree Planting Program
City of Prospect receives many resident requests for planting of street trees. Council assesses each request on an individual basis and all planting is subject to space, underground services, suitability of location, tree species and budget. Tree planting occurs between June and October each year, which is the best time to establish a healthy root system.
Street Trees and Powerlines
Ensuring we have a safe and reliable supply of electricity is of paramount importance to SA Power Networks. To achieve this, vegetation needs to be trimmed around powerlines to minimise the risk of outages, avoid damage to lines and ensure public and community safety.
Pruning works are carried out by a qualified horticulture team to ensure pruning is kept to a minimum where possible. Further information is available from SA Power Networks on 13 12 61 or at www.sapowernetworks.com.au.
Tree Removals
As you would be aware, street trees are of significant value from both an environmental and an aesthetic perspective and provide enormous benefits to the community. As such, Council will consider all available options before it agrees to the removal of any of its street trees or other roadside vegetation.
To approve the removal of street trees one of the following criteria must be fulfilled:
- The tree is dead or dying
- The tree presents an unacceptable safety hazard, which cannot be alleviated by pruning
- The tree is shown to be causing, or threatening to cause, substantial damage to a building or structure of value
- The tree presents a serious traffic visibility problem which will be recurrent, and which cannot be alleviated by pruning
- The tree is planted in an unsuitable position
Tree Watering
Council has a Tree Watering Program to water newly planted trees for three consecutive years during the summer months and hot/dry periods of each year. Watering generally begins in October of each year, and continues through until March, depending on the hot/dry weather each year. Tree watering for three years is to ensure that the young trees have the best chance to establish themselves and a healthy deep-root system.
We encourage residents to support our watering program by providing street trees with a bucket or two of additional water during the drier months of the year on a regular basis. Keeping grass and other plants away from the planting holes will also further assist in the trees’ establishment.
If you would like any more information on trees within City of Prospect, please contact us on (08) 8269 5355 or email admin@prospect.sa.gov.au
Frequently Asked Questions
For any new tree requests, we encourage you to put something in writing. You can do so through the Contact Us page. This is often the quickest and most direct way to submit your request.
Alternatively, you can contact us on (08) 8269 5355.
We are still in the process of developing the Urban Street Tree Guide which determines species for each street. Currently, we utilise City of Prospect’s 21st Century Street Tree Manual.
The Manual specifies which species of tree will be planted in each street in order to retain uniformity to enhance the visual streetscape appeal. As the manual develops into the Urban Street Tree Guide, species will be reviewed to ensure that only those that will eventually green tunnel are specified.
As you would be aware, street trees are of significant value from both an environmental and an aesthetic perspective and provide enormous benefits to the community. As such, Council will consider all available options before it agrees to the removal of any of its street trees or other roadside vegetation.
To approve the removal of street trees one of the following criteria must be fulfilled:
- The tree is dead or dying
- The tree presents an unacceptable safety hazard, which cannot be alleviated by pruning
- The tree is shown to be causing, or threatening to cause, substantial damage to a building or structure of value
- The tree presents a serious traffic visibility problem which will be recurrent, and which cannot be alleviated by pruning
- The tree is planted in an unsuitable position
This issue can also be raised as a Request - click here. Each customer request received for street tree maintenance is inspected and assessed, taking into account the following aspects:
- Tree species
- Tree size – to determine if significant or not
- Overall health/condition
- Structure and defects present
- Proximity to infrastructure and dwellings
- Risk to the community
From this initial inspection, appropriate actions are recommended, enabling Council to effectively maintain the tree and manage public risk, based on its condition and potential for hazard. If the tree is determined to be high risk, appropriate remedial works will be carried out as soon as possible.
For trees that pose a low risk, maintenance works will be addressed as part of the ongoing street tree maintenance program.
Residents are not permitted to prune street trees as it is Council's responsibility to ensure that pruning works are undertaken by trained personnel and in accordance with Australian Standards for tree pruning and occupational health and safety.
Generally, trees will be allowed to develop their natural canopy and will not be pruned. Where pruning is essential, it will be carried out in accordance with Australian Standards, for the express purposes of:
- Providing clearance for pedestrian movement
- Improving the safety, structure and health of the tree
- Maintaining clearances for utility services such as powerlines
- Improving vehicle driver's line of sight along vehicle carriageways
- Preventing branches encroaching into neighbouring property from public property
Council undertakes formative pruning during the early stages of the tree’s life to ensure that the tree takes good shape and form. Once the tree reaches maturity, Council will undertake block pruning as required to ensure footpath and road clearances are maintained.
Any trees with branches within high voltage power lines can only be pruned and trimmed by SA Power Networks (SAPN) and their approved contractors.
Any concerns you may have around this should be raised directly with SAPN immediately. They can be contacted on their Faults and Emergencies line 13 13 66.
SAPN undertake line clearance pruning every two years in order to minimise any issues and hazards.
Green Tunnel Project
Attractive tree-lined streets with beautiful leafy green canopies are a unique feature of Prospect.
Our iconic Green Tunnels, streets lined with trees where their canopies grow to touch across the street, are fundamental to creating a sense of place and increasing health and wellbeing across the City of Prospect.
Increasing tree canopy cover through planting Green Tunnels will address the impacts of the challenges presented in this strategy through increasing biodiversity, cleaning the air and capturing carbon dioxide, reducing the heat island effect, protecting infrastructure assets, managing stormwater, providing shade, improving health and wellbeing, and cooling our city.
Using the Heat Maps developed through Council’s Urban Heat and Tree Canopy Mapping Project in collaboration with Resilient East , Council is prioritising areas of public land for planting, to create ‘green tunnels’ and a cooler, liveable City. By identifying urban heat spots, we take on a proactive approach to tree planting and increase local resilience.
Trees are a long-term investment, and it can take between 10 to 30 years to experience the benefits of today’s actions. Selected species will be chosen based on their ability to form a ‘green tunnel’, with canopies eventually touching across a street overtime. By planting larger trees, we can also achieve a ‘green tunnel’ effect faster.
If you would like any more information on our Green Tunnel Project, please contact us on (08) 8269 5355 or email admin@prospect.sa.gov.au.
Urban Heat and Tree Canopy Mapping
Understanding the extent of tree canopy, green spaces, permeability, building footprints and urban heat across our city helps us plan for a cooler city.
In support of our Green Tunnels and tree canopy targets, we have partnered with the State Government, Resilient East and 18 local government areas across metropolitan Adelaide to map tree canopy, green spaces, built environment, and urban heat. The project involved reprocessing the earlier data captured in 2018 and 2019 to be as comparable as possible with the 2022 data.
With this new data capture, there is now, for the first time, a contiguous dataset across the entire metropolitan Adelaide region that will allow detection of changes in tree canopy extents, green spaces, impermeable surfaces, and building footprints over time.
The data captured in this project will be used by us to identify areas where there are changes in tree canopy, to plan future planting or urban heat mitigation projects, assess the success of previous initiatives, measure against current targets and inform future objectives.
Key Highlights:
- Tree canopy covers about 16.5% of City of Prospect, or approximately 7,806,727 square metres.
- 17% of metropolitan Adelaide is covered in tree canopy.
- Impermeable surfaces, like roads, buildings and other hard surfaces, cover 29% of metropolitan Adelaide.
- Permeable surfaces, like bare earth, grassed areas and vegetation make up 67% (about 3.5% of the study area was water).
Keen to explore the new high-resolution surface temperature data and tree canopy cover for City of Prospect? Want to find the technical reports? Enter your address to see how cool or hot your property is, and how it relates to nearby trees at Urban Heat and Tree Mapping of Adelaide Metropolitan Area
If you would like any more information on the Urban Heat and Tree Mapping Project within City of Prospect, please contact us on (08) 8269 5355 or email admin@prospect.sa.gov.au.