Autumn in Glebe Park.

Autumn in Glebe Park. Photo: Chad Clark



DESPITE containing 367 unique varieties of tree more than 70 per cent of Canberra's urban forest is made up of just 20 species. Of those, eucalypts are the most common species, making up 40 per cent of the forest.


Director of city services Fleur Flanery said the audit of 730,000 Canberra street trees cost $1.15 million in the three years to 2012 and had helped the Territory and Municipal Services Directorate manage the forest.


The survey also found that the territory's tallest trees grow in Glebe Park and 20,000 saplings were watered by the directorate last financial year.


But Ms Flanery said the height of the city's tree canopies caused additional problems for the directorate.


"Canberra has one of the tallest urban forests in Australia ... from an operational perspective we find it interesting because we need equipment that can reach higher up," she said.


She said workers pruning trees needed elevated platforms that could reach up to 25 metres, but the specialist equipment wasn't used frequently in newer suburbs.


"In some circumstances the nature strips are not as generous as those that were in the first development of Canberra," Ms Flanery said.


"You have to look at what the site allows you to plant, so it's no use putting in a big tree on a nature strip that won't allow it."


She said planting in newer suburbs varied between long and short-lived varieties to ensure a more consistent treescape.