The Greening group is currently working on the Plant a Tree Day event planned for this Sunday
26th May. We were successful at gaining a Social Inclusion Grant funded by Benalla Council. This event is free, for Benalla locals, all ages and abilities welcome. There will be Wayap Wuurrk for connection and wellbeing, nature games, and a free barbeque. People will be given a plant to plant around their home to create a shady spot for their household. They will also be provided with information on the importance of shade and how to plant their small tree or shrub. (flyer)

In March we hosted Andie Guerin of the Regent Honeyeater Project to speak at our BSFG General meeting.Andie shared his extensive knowledge on local plants that would be suitable for planting on our nature strips and in our gardens, and what conditions and pitfalls we need to consider when selecting plants.

The Greening group is concerned about the way we see subdivisions being developed in the
Benalla Council area. Specifically, the lack of planning to provide for public open space in new
subdivisions, and the mass clearing of all existing, often mature, trees to make way for new
subdivisions poses a problem for the future. Fewer shade trees have been planted in and around Benalla over the last 20 years. The problem of reduced and insufficient shade where people live is now widely recognised across Australia with regional towns having some unique blockers to solving this problem.

Climate Change being the driver of increased temperatures around the globe, trees have an important part to play in mitigating its effects, and in protecting the health of communities with a wide variety of benefits as we learnt when Dr Greg Moore spoke in Benalla last year.

In Benalla, less shade trees have been planted due to several factors, including overhead power lines, narrow nature strips in newer subdivisions, and a reduced budget for footpaths, curb and channel.

BSFG member Howard Bartlett has shared with us a document prepared for the Municipal Association of Victoria titled 'Shaping Regional and Rural Victoria - A Discussion Paper'. It has
many point of interest in common with BSFG objectives including:

1. Greening of streets and reserves
2. Solar farms
3. Council Resources
4. Affordable appropriate housing

If anyone is interested in a copy, see me or Howard after the meeting. This area is one that the
Greening & Cooling Benalla group will be working to address going forward.

We hope we can work with Benalla Council and developers to ensure that Benalla has shade trees in every subdivision and on all vacant Council land, and also encourage home owners to plant shade trees.

​

Judy Schwarzman

​An opportunity to improve greening and cooling in Benalla, as well as habitat for native birds and wildlife on council land.  Andie Guerin will speak about the Regent Honeyeater Project.  A free BBQ will be provided at the end of the planting.

More information on National Tree Day: treeday.planetark.org or www.benalla.vic.gov.au/

BSFG's 'Greening Benalla - Greening and Cooling our Urban Spaces' action group invite you to attend our BSFG General Meeting at 7:30 - 9:30 pm on Thursday 14th March at the Benalla Uniting Church meeting room, opposite the Coles Car Park. This time includes a light supper at the end of the evening.

The meeting part will be brief and the main focus is our guest speaker: 

Andie Guerin, Environmental Consultant from the Regent Honeyeater Project 

The theme for Andie's talk is ideas for planting on your Nature Strip.

Andie will share his knowledge on local plants that would be suitable for planting on our nature strips, and what conditions we need to consider when selecting plants. Many of these plants will be ideal for our gardens too. 

Background: Nature Strips

Nature strips are the area of public land that lies between the boundary of private property and the road kerb. They soften and enhance the streetscape by providing a ‘green’ zone and a buffer between pedestrians and vehicles. Nature strips play a crucial role in keeping our neighbourhoods healthy and attractive.  
​
Your nature strip can be more than just grass, it can be a beautiful garden right outside your front fence. Planting up this area will also enhance habitat, increase urban biodiversity, help mitigate climate change and beautify your street. Plus reduce the time you spend mowing!
While your nature strip may not appear large enough to make a difference, small areas of biodiversity can have a valuable, cumulative effect on species diversity in urbanised environments.
 
BSFG is keen to work with our community to develop our nature strips into beautiful gardens for all of us to enjoy.

Please RSVP your attendance to [email protected]   We hope to see you there,

Judy Schwarzman,
Secretary, BSFG

Event details:

Thursday 22nd February 2024
7.30pm - 9.30pm, including supper
Meeting Room, Benalla Uniting Church.
Opposite the Coles Car Park

In an article 'City Plants 70 new trees' in the Benalla Ensign on Wednesday 18 October, p 7, we learn of 70 newly planted nature strip trees representing "a diverse range of species, carefully selected to thrive in the local environment and coexist with roadside infrastructure". 

"Among the popular species planted this year are tree species known for their resilience to pest and disease, ...Callistemon (Bottlebrush), Grevillea, Eucalyptus, Meleleuca (Paper Barks); Agonis (Willow Myrtle); Acer (Japanese Maple), Fraxinus (Ash), Ulmus (Elm) and Zelcova (Chinese Elm).  ...Tree species have been carefully selected considering factors such as local conditions, climate and existing streetscape."   

​In the article, then Benalla Rural City Council Mayor Cr Bernie Hearn emphasized the tree planting program "not only enhances the visual appeal of our streets but provides environmental benefits in providing air quality, reducing heat and providing habitat for wildlife".   

The Council's Rec-Less: Less Water, Less Often, More Resilient Open Spaces Project works to ensure species planted in open spaces are hardy and resilient to the effects of climate change and that these spaces are prioritised for irrigation.

We've taken the liberty of incorporating links from the Rec-Less page for you here.  You can download the Council's information sheet for handy tips about improving resilience in your garden as well as tables with examples of resilient species: 

• Ground-covers, including flower species for mass plantings (PDF, 201KB)
• Climbers (PDF,4MB)
• Large shrubs(PDF, 6MB)
• Small shrubs(PDF, 7MB)
• Small trees (up to 10m tall)(PDF, 7MB)
• Large trees(PDF, 5MB)
• Tussocks(PDF, 9MB)

Many of us face choices in relation to planting hardy, resilient plants in our gardens - the varieties the Council chooses to plant, and those included in the Rec-Less information sheets provide a useful avenue to pursue in our research.

Bev Lee and Peter Maddock

Sources: 
Benalla Ensign, 'City Plants 70 new trees', Wednesday October 18, 2023 p7
Benalla Council Website 'Rec-Less: Less Water, Less Often, More Resilient Open Spaces Project' accessed 28 December 2023

Issues surrounding the need to retain, and grow, trees as essential infrastructure continue to emerge in our community.  Revisiting Greg Moore's outstanding talk can provide both inspiration and fact based evidence and strategies to support efforts to continue to advocate for trees as essential infrastructure.  

Sue Campbell has given us permission to include her submission on the website:  

 
BENALLA RURAL CITY

1 Bridge Street East Benalla 3672
 
Submission on Planning

13 November 2022
 
Permit No. PO 148/22

 
Removal of Tree 13 Bridge Street East Benalla 3672
 
I commend the Council for its report on the above mentioned tree by Enspec PTY
 
My concerns for the removal of this tree include
 

• It is Councils obligation to protect the residents from the predicted rise in deadly heatwaves.
• Forecasts of a sharp rise in deaths due to heatwaves, show street trees can reduce temperatures by as much as 10 deg.
• The trees planted in Bridge Street some 23 years ago were undertaken as a long term solution to this problem, to start removing them as they reach a size of usefulness to combat climate change is to defeat the original plans for Benalla.
• The species of tree i.e. Platinus Orientalis was carefully chosen after consultation with Mr. Kevin Heinz, expert in managing tree planting in suburban areas.
• The tree forms part of a well designed avenue its removal would not be in any way advantageous to the general landscape of the town, in fact its removal will be apparent for many years as a mistaken step by the Council.
• Is this stated Policy of Council and was it part of the original streetscape development process, or simply a convenient fall-back position now rather than a well thought through and deliberate strategy in which the community was consulted and involved.
• Is it known to the community that that the trees will be progressively replaced? Surely the original species selection was done in expectation of the tree’s permanence? Was there consultation and is this an agreed outcome? Is this approach generally adopted by Councils or simply a Benalla-centric practice?

 
Planting new trees will not help this situation for many years, how fortunate the citizens of this town are that a previous Council had the foresight to plan for the future; the removal of this tree would undermine the forward thinking of that enlightened council.
 
I refer to the Consultants report on the need to remove this tree and ask the Council to engage an expert on the use of root barriers as has been carried out on numerous sites around Melbourne on much larger trees.

Executive Summary - page 10 of report
 
The results of the executive summary undertaken by Enspec Environment conclude that:-
 
Damage to the front of the 13 Bridge Street West East, in the vicinity of the gas meter, is likely to be due to the influence of roots from the council tree. No significant roots were identified elsewhere along the frontage of the properties adjacent test area.
 
Pruning of the identified roots, or other root management options could be undertaken to resolve the issue.
 
I therefore request the Council to review their application to remove this tree.
 
 
Susan Campbell O.A M.
Landscape Architect .A.I.L.A.
(address provided)
 
13 November 2022

In her Greening Benalla action group report in late November Sue Campbell spoke with passion and her usual well researched position about a tree in Bridge Street near the Reject Shop area for which a removal application has been instituted.  The possible removal of the tree has caused Sue great concern.  Her presentation raised alarm bells for members of the group.   Read the Executive Summary of Sue's Submission to Benalla Rural City Council...

On December 12th a thought provoking post on the Benalla Community Notice Board Facebook page by Giulia Franchesci raised her concerns ...

"Hello Benalla people.... 
I believe we are at point if we don’t start to protect mature public shade trees, dangerous precedents are being set by Landowners and Council’s to remove any, and all, public trees that are considered “problematic”.
LET’S SAVE IT!!!
Over the last 40 or more years this tree has OXYGENATED, REFRESHED, SHADED and BEAUTIFED our little space on this planet. Benalla.
LET’S US GIVE A THANKS BY RESISTING HIS REMOVAL.
Every word or deed spent in his cause it will help.
Let’s learn to be responsible human beings.
Let’s protect what protects us.
Even the least environmental aware community members would probably prefer to park in shade away from our hot sun.
The tree is there for all of society’s benefit.
I am not sure if one land owner’s convenience should not have the right to destroy something that will benefit all of us for centuries."
With love Giulia"
GF

Bev Lee

Arising out of the 2022 BSFG Review, our group consists of Karen Nankervis, Judy Schwarzman, Sue Campbell, Kate Holmes and Christine Holmes.
 
At our first meeting on Tuesday 12th July, we decided on a name - Greening Benalla Focus Group, BSFG.
 
We discussed our interest and purpose as follows –

• Greening of the Benalla landscape by preserving existing vegetation and creating new green spaces and corridors.
• Our focus is health and wellbeing of the community and environment through involvement and education.

 
At this meeting Kate brought the BRC Health and Wellbeing Annual Action Plan 2022-2023 to our attention.  We felt we could make a contribution to many of the intended actions and outcomes contained within the document.

• We read through the document and from our notes Christine wrote a submission to the Plan, sent on 13th July.

• Of the ten Victorian Public Health and Wellbeing priorities, tackling climate change, increasing healthy and active living were specific areas of interest to our group.
• We have not had feedback or acknowledgement from the BRC Health and Wellbeing Steering committee.

 
Our second meeting, on the 26th July, was called abruptly as we found out through the Ensign funding was available for councils and community groups to apply for grants from The Living Local fund, to improve public spaces and streetscapes, due by 14th August.
​
We made the following decisions as an action plan in preparation to apply for funding.

• Identify potential spaces for greening. We came up with two potential spaces, both in Goodwin St. Benalla. We visited those spaces.
• Contact the appropriate people from BRC to determine who is responsible for those spaces.  (Judy sent an email 28th July)
• We intend to make an appointment to discuss our ideas with the BRC Planning/ Landscaping staff as well as Councillor Gail O'Brien in the coming week, as soon as we have above information.  

 
Christine Holmes, on behalf of the group.