75,000 trees a year destroyed across Adelaide according to a Conservation Council report

Conservationists are demanding an end to the “destruction” after issuing a stark warning over how quickly SA is cutting down its trees.

Adelaide is losing an estimated 75,000 trees every year – or enough to cover Adelaide Oval’s surface 1100 times – according to a report which demands an end to the “destruction”.

Environmental groups – led by the Conservation Council SA – have warned that the city’s trees are under threat and that current laws are failing to prevent “unnecessary removals”.

A new “Call to Action: Protecting Adelaide’s Tree Canopy” report, released on Thursday, has predicted for the first time the net tree loss across Adelaide.

The report estimates that metropolitan Adelaide is losing 75,000 trees annually – or an area double the size of Adelaide CBD’s every decade – and that if it continued the city had “no hope” of becoming a ‘green liveable city’.

Conservation Council SA chief executive Craig Wilkins said the figure was a “rough estimate” given lack of official figures.

The remains of a Mallee Box tree, among dozens the state’s planning authority approved to be axed for the Springwood housing development at Gawler East. Picture: Yuri Poetzl

He said the number was based on taking national tree canopy statistics, multiplying the area of Greater Adelaide by the percentage of tree canopy loss and dividing it by the canopy spread of a single tree.

“To put it another way, the loss of tree canopy in a year is around 2.35 square kilometres or 1100 times the grassed area of Adelaide Oval each year,” he said.

“It’s a rough estimate but it’s based on the best data we have at the moment. And it gives a sense of the scale of the challenge we are facing, and the need for urgent law reform to turn it around.

“Many of these trees will be small, but unfortunately far too many are ancient and significant trees we simply cannot afford to lose.

“If this continues we have zero chance to meet the state government target of increasing urban green cover by 20 per cent in metro Adelaide by 2045.”

The report, compiled in conjunction with the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects, Environmental Defenders Office, National Trust SA, Nature Conservation Society of SA, Treenet and Trees for Life, says SA’s regulated tree laws have become “overly complex” and allow for “indiscriminate removal of large trees”.

“The original intention of the legislation has been lost through myriad exemptions that make it impossible for the average resident to work out if they can legally remove a tree or not,” the report says.

A Mallee Box tree before it – and dozens like it – were removed for the Springwood housing estate in Gawler East. Picture: Yuri Poetzl

Among the recommendations are:

INCREASING the number of trees required to be planted in new developments;

REMOVING exemptions that allow trees within 20m of a house in a medium bushfire risk to be cut down without approval;

REQUIRE all planning applications – and arborists advice supporting or opposing tree removal – to be made publicly available;

INCREASING fees paid by those wanting to remove a regulated or significant tree and;

MORE financial help to ensure homeowners can retain trees on private land;

The report also urges an overhaul of a current “double standard” that allows the State Government to remove trees for infrastructure projects and on schools without approval.

“It has led to unnecessary tree removals as there is no requirement to consider designing around trees and the community has no opportunity to promote smarter options,” the report says.

Last October 11 metropolitan mayors wrote to Planning Minister Vickie Chapman asking her to review tree laws.