Urban Forest Engagement

Canning can't grow our urban forest alone, it’s time to come together!

Our understanding of how trees thrive in urban environments is constantly evolving as is our understanding of how they contribute to our quality of life. Urban forests are ecosystems characterised by the presence of trees and related flora and fauna, the soils, and landscapes they populate and the air and water resource they co-exist with, all in dynamic association with people and their human Settlements. Competing priorities makes their success particularly challenging, but when they are well managed, with input that considers a variety of stakeholders the benefits for the community can be profound.

The workshops you were involved in brought together a wide range of stakeholders to develop an action plan to build capacity, relationships and improve decision making around trees and the people, places and resources that support them. This page includes a brief survey along with links to the draft action plan and an overview of the workshops.

This brief survey and update provides participants in the urban forest engagement workshops a collection of the outcomes and will inform them of the next steps.

The artworks featured on this page were created by artist, anthropologist and academic Barbara Bynder who captured ideas and inspiration from participants about the potential future of Canning's urban forest. Barbara describes her works below;

"The colour represents the landscape and the water that is located within the City of Canning. The blue bars are a representation of the restrictions and limitations that currently exist in relation to the expectations of the community and how new growth is inhibited by local government policy and legislation. The workshop presented new ideas and this is represented in the patterning that is embedded in the artwork. The circles in blue is the reflection of Whadjuk Noongar boodjar and the idea that taking care of country is significant in moving new ways of living into the future. Shared country.

The second artwork has a red border around it and I felt as though the restrictions that local government have placed on residents is inhibiting new ideas to emerge and demonstrated a layered approach to the concept of new urban design. The participants were keen to reflect their views and wanted to share their ideas for a new look City of Canning, and there were some very good responses to the questions that the facilitator put forward, however, there was also a feeling of being hemmed in, there was a lack of trust in council, and the idea that the exercise although exciting to think through new ideas was hindered by the layering of politics that currently surrounds the relationship between rate payers and council."