Our tree laws are broken and it’s time we fixed them to reflect community expectations.

Government recognition of this and a consequent desire to match best practice are evident: the Planning and Design Code Implementation Review is well underway and the Environment, Resources & Development Committee has announced an Inquiry into the Urban Forest.

We know that trees are one of the best means available to us to mitigate the effects of climate change. They cool our homes and streets, lessening our reliance on air conditioning and enabling us to walk or ride to the shops, to work or simply for enjoyment.

They can add up to 11% to the value of our homes and in retail areas lead to people spending more money. They have been proven to reduce crime. There is no part of our lives that they don’t touch.

The positive impacts of trees on our health, too, are significant. They clean the air we breathe, removing particulate matter from the air and preventing it from getting into our lungs. The oft-derided London Plane Tree is particularly effective at this. Numerous studies, undertaken both locally and internationally reach the same conclusion: where we have tree canopy within 1.6 km from home we are 30% less likely to experience anxiety and depression. We are also 30% less likely to have general health outcomes in the poor to fair range.

This is particularly significant in Adelaide, as we have less public park land than Melbourne (20%), Perth (40%), and Sydney (57%). On a per capita basis we also have more heat-related deaths than any other mainland capital. Given the cooling effects of tree canopy, the correlation between the two is obvious.

The Covid pandemic has underscored the importance of trees and open green space on our mental health. During peak Covid, we recognised the benefits to us in getting out into nature and enjoying the streets and parks of our local areas. We’re still enjoying those local areas where many of us bonded with our previously unknown neighbours and rediscovered or rebuilt community. We’re still enjoying the benefits of good community and continuing to visit parks and national parks in greater numbers than before.

The Kaurna people valued trees and they still do – they provided food, shields, shelter for birds and animals as well as for the Kaurna and their families. Kaurna lived and worked with trees. We should aim to do this as well.

Trees play a huge role in not only our enjoyment of place, but in defining it. Yet in Adelaide we have a net loss of 75,000 trees per year. This is an impoverishment of our place and of our lives. Nowhere is this currently better illustrated than at the Kings Reserve in Thebarton, where the local community is enraged by the potential excision of the green open space and tree canopy that they prize. I was told the other day of an elderly man with dementia who had somehow escaped his nursing home and made his way to Kings Reserve where he sat peacefully under the trees until he was found and taken “home” again.  He knew what he needed, yet was unable to ask for it. He is not alone in knowing that we need nature around us.

Tree canopy is a both a right and a responsibility. We need to embrace the challenges that trees occasionally offers us to ensure that we don’t close the door on grabbing the benefits it gives us with both hands.

Photo: InDaily

Plant, water and maintain a tree in your backyard if you are blessed with the good fortune of owning your own home. Do some homework: there is the right tree for every spot. Plant a tree on your verge.

If you’re a landlord, recognise that you are incredibly fortunate to own more than one property and plant a tree for your tenants. Help them out with the costs of water to establish it. Build community. You’ll get so much back from doing this.

Improvements to our tree regulations as well as to the Planning and Design Code should aim to see every single one of us benefit from trees. The current review and the inquiry give us all a timely and powerful voice to use. It’s time to step up and use this and encourage our friends and family to do so too, for ourselves and for future generations.

The Expert Review panel is accepting submission until December 16th. You can make a submission via email: [email protected], via post: Attention: Expert Panel, GPO Box 1815, Adelaide SA 5001: via yoursay.sa.gov.au/planning_review or phone 08 7133 3222.

The ERD Committee is accepting submissions from interested individuals and organisations until Friday 24th February. You can make a submission via email: [email protected] or by post: GPO Box572, Adelaide, SA, 5001, until Friday 24th February.

Joanna Wells is an outreach coordinator at Conservation SA