Whitehorse City Council values the important contribution of trees and vegetation in making the municipality a vibrant place to live, work and visit. 

An 'Urban forest' includes trees, shrubs and groundcovers along with the soil and water they depend on within both public and private land. It provides several benefits including:

• Shading and cooling during summer
• Water retention reducing the risk of flooding
• Improved community connectedness and wellbeing

Urban Forest Strategy

Council’s endorsed Urban Forest Strategy sets out the actions we will take to increase tree canopy cover in Whitehorse.

Tree canopy cover is the amount of trees covering the ground when viewed from above. Reaching our targets and delivering on our actions involves working collectively throughout Council, with external organisations and alongside the community.

The strategy aims to achieve canopy cover of 30% in Whitehorse by 2050.

Vision and Objectives

The strategy’s vision is ‘a diverse, healthy and resilient urban forest’ and it outlines five key objectives:

1. Protect the urban forest across private and public land
2. Expand the urban forest and adapt to climate change
3. Enhance biodiversity
4. Build community capacity to learn from each other, protect and enhance the urban forest
5. Build on Council's knowledge base