Mt Coot-tha zipline land clearing prompts question on what council counts as a tree

What counts as a tree? For Brisbane City Council, it seems to depend if it’s pulling them out to build a controversial zipline, or planting them to provide shade to the city’s streets.

What counts as a tree? For Brisbane City Council, it seems to depend if it’s pulling them out to build a zipline, or planting them up to shade the city’s streets.

Brisbane City Council’s approved Mt Coot-tha Zipline project will clear 200 ‘trees’ but that number only counts trees with a diameter of more than 15cm.

Any trees with a diameter of less than 15cm to be removed are not included in the count, and are not required to be replaced.

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The council has promised to plant eight trees for every tree with a diameter larger than 15cm that is removed, where usually it is only required to plant three trees.

At Tuesday’s council meeting, Greens Cr Jonathan Sri (The Gabba) said the council regularly replaced established street trees with saplings with trunks less than 15cm wide.

“(The council) claims this is a satisfactory offset,” he said.

“Yet in assessing the zipline project, apparently nothing smaller than 15cm counts as a tree. So my question is: when is a tree not a tree? How does the Lord Mayor explain this inconsistency?”

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A king parrot in the branches at Mt Coot-tha forest park on the Honeyeater Track. How many of these trees would count as trees? Picture: Margaret Wenham

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said “the reality is that zipline, in our view, creates a very, very small impact in terms of Mt Coot-tha and it has many individual advantages that it provides”.

He said it would also come with a suspension bridge and give visitors more tourism opportunities.

“We made it quite clear, in terms of the approval, that the 200 trees related to a diameter width … that width that was determined, as outlined by councillor Sri, was correct — it’s 15cm in width,” he said.

“So beyond that, again, rather than the one in three, I think it is, that we would normally require for a tree replacement, we are requiring one in eight.”

An echidna going into hiding in the Mt Coot-tha forest park — on the Honeyeater Track. Picture: Margaret Wenham

Cr Sri shot to his feet with a point of order: “I’m just seeking clarification. Will those trees have a diameter greater than 15cm? Or will they not count as trees?”

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk did not answer the question but repeated that the council would require eight trees to be planted for every tree removed that had a trunk diameter of 15cm or more.

“It is about getting that canopy, any canopy loss, which will be very small in size, getting it replaced, and we believe that recovery ... will be achieved within a couple of years, within two or three years,” he said.

“That’s the best I can do for Cr Sri today about this.”

Cr Quirk said the Mt Coot-tha Zipline has been approved by Brisbane City Council, and it was now up to submitters to decide if they wanted to appeal the decision.

The Mt Coot-tha Zipline project has been controversial in the community. Picture: AAP/Josh Woning