WA’s multimillion-dollar plan to ‘fight back’ against destructive shot-hole borer

Thousands of trees across Perth, including at iconic sites like Perth Zoo and Hyde Park, have been cut down after being affected by the polyphagous shot-hole borer, but a new multimillion-dollar plan could help replace them.

The state government announced on Saturday $7.2 million in funding, stating they will plant three news trees for every one lost to the shot-hole-borer – around 16,000 in total. So far, 3000 trees have been lost.

The shot hole borer has already caused thousands of trees to be felled.Credit: City of Vincent/Supplied

The funding is in addition to $44 million already allocated for eradicating the pest.

Environment Minister Reece Whitby said this was “a way that we can fight back”.

“These grants will be available to state government agencies, local government, and indeed, private landholders who sadly had their trees removed,” he said.

“I think it’s almost two million trees inspected at well over 60,000 properties, 160 staff working continuously. So there is a massive effort going on right now (to stop the pest).

“This is an ongoing battle. It’s going to go on, I fear, for a number of years, and will continue to look at the support that can be had. This is a national biosecurity emergency.”

A further $800,000 will be applied to help build shade structures and provide immediate shelter, which will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

Whitby said the state government was also committed more generally to urban greening. This masthead has previously revealed that Perth has the worst tree cover out of all capital cities in Australia.

He said the aim was to replace the trees with native species where possible, as they were more resilient and would provide food and shelter for the native animals.

“It’s very sad to lose any tree, but this borer is mainly concentrating on exotic introduced species,” he said.

Agriculture Minister Jackie Jarvis said they were working around the clock to both eradicate the pest, and to secure the containment lines.

She said she had met with universities and charged them to get their “best and brightest” to look at what more can be done.

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