Where will all the trees be: Top End towns face struggle on maintaining canopy cover

DARWIN and Palmerston were two of the country’s worst performing cities in greening the streets with canopy cover since 2016, according to an environment study.

DARWIN and Palmerston were two of the country’s worst performing cities in greening the streets with canopy cover since 2016, according to an environment study.

According to the Where Will All The Trees Be report from Greener Spaces Better Places and RMIT, Palmerston received the worst growth rate, -8.5 per cent, of 131 municipalities across the country, while Darwin was in the bottom 10 with about -2.5 per cent growth of canopy cover.

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Urban Forest Consulting principal Meg Caffin said Darwin and Palmerston suffered a unique struggle with the climate.

“Darwin and Palmerston are a little bit more unique in terms of the storm events – Cyclone Marcus in 2018 took out significant tree coverage which hasn’t been replaced," Ms Caffin said.

“There was also bushfire in Palmerston which wiped out canopy.”

Ms Caffin said the size of the councils and their resources restricted their ability to plant and maintain trees in a climate reliant on regular rainfall patterns.

“There will always be more storms, and keeping up with that pace of change is important, otherwise you will end up with a city with no trees,” she said.

“The quantum of tree planting required is far beyond what council has capacity for.

“You would remove x number of trees through development and ageing, council replaces those trees.

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“Darwin council are on the right track … but using this report is a good wake-up call because there is a problem here and we need to do something about it.”