Hundreds more trees lost to the Warringah Freeway Upgrade
Residents living close to the High Street interchange awoke to arbourgeddon in the week before Christmas. Like a bomb, hundreds of trees and countless animals and birds who depended upon them for habitat were destroyed overnight. For the locals, many in modest flats, the trees provided amenity and much valued separation from the 15-lane grey expanse of road and howling traffic.
North Sydney residents gather in anger and disbelief as more habitat trees are destroyed by the Warringah Freeway Upgrade project. (Photos courtesy of Save Cammeray Park).
Transport for NSW has released the North Sydney Tree Replacement Strategy which sets out how, when and where trees will be replanted along the project corridor. However, many of the trees will be planted in locations away from the motorway and the new tree canopy will not come close to replacing the current heavy losses for many decades. In Cammeray Park, over 900 trees were cut down and along the edges of the freeway between Military Rd and High St, over 1000 mature, native trees were reduced to wood chips.
The strategy neglects to include or reference the Greening our City Premier’s Priority and is unlikely to help North Sydney achieve the NSW Government target of 40% tree canopy cover by 2036.
North Sydney Council currently has an urban tree canopy of approximately 34%. Our submission is here.
Trees connect people to place
There is a jarring dissonance to it all. The glossy strategy offers beautiful tree photos and a touching Acknowledgement of Country statement. For those on Cammeraygal Country who have seen what was beautiful about their place destroyed without any recourse, the strategy will be regarded as an attempt to regain trust, well after the fact. Over 1700 trees have been removed and hundreds more are earmarked for the chop.
Leafy goodness from the North Sydney Tree Replacement Strategy; The reality at SMH photo
Cammeray Golf Course.
Another issue not considered in the strategy is the inevitable loss of property values. Residents will have to wait at least 10 years for the replacement trees to grow and block out the asphalt and noise.
Bicycle NSW regards the planned 2:1 replacement of older established trees as manifestly inadequate. Many more trees will be required at a much higher ratio due to the requisite years in regrowth. But it will never replace the innumerable fauna and unique communities already lost.
Trees are vital to soak up CO2 and significantly cool the lived environment.
The removal of trees, especially of old trees, contributes to the urban heat island effect and a hardening of the built environment. Whilst the loss is catastrophic to the communities of fauna, it is also deeply felt by humans who need trees to keep cool and sane in a rapidly heating world. Humans develop a relationship and sense of place living and moving around trees. Trees have a softening effect on the urban landscape, both physically and psychosocially. There is an established relationship between green space and improved psychological wellbeing and reduced anti-social behaviour.
Trees stop us all from going mad, sad and bad.
With a higher frequency and intensity of 40+ degree days under climate change, loss of canopy exacerbates the health and safety impacts created by the urban heat island effect. The mitigation of and adaptation to these impacts is prioritised in the NSW Future Transport Strategy 2061 and Active Transport Strategy.
How can we help?
Visit the Bicycle NSW 2023 election campaign webpage and sign up for Better Streets in your electorate. Bicycle NSW has been campaigning hard for better streets for 46 years! If you can, please donate now to the Bicycle NSW Environmental Trust. The Environmental Trust enables our advocacy to lower CO2 emissions and improve the environment for walking and cycling.
For the sake of our health, the environment and the right for everyone to move around safely, it is actually a race. Let’s support candidates who support better streets.
