650 deciduous trees are being planted as part of the ACT Government’s winter planting program.

Manager, Policy, Planning and Contracts, Urban Treescapes, Luke Bulkeley said winter is a good time to plant deciduous trees because they are in a dormant state and therefore easier to plant.

“As part of the current program we are planting 650 trees to help beautify the Canberra landscape. The majority of these have now been planted,” Mr Bulkeley said.

“The new plantings are almost all exotic deciduous species including oaks (quercus), ashes (fraxinus), flowering cherries (prunus), flowering pears (pyrus) and Chinese elms (ulmus parvifolia). The trees are being planted in 69 different suburbs across Canberra, with concentrated areas of planting in Nicholls, Amaroo, O’Connor, Narrabundah, Dunlop and Banks.

“Winter is a good time to plant deciduous trees as they are dormant. Many deciduous species can be sold and planted as ‘bare root’ stock. This means the tree does not come in a pot of soil, making it cheaper and easier to transport and plant.

“While the primary goal of this tree planting activity is to replace trees that have been removed due to disease, hazard or age in streets, the new trees will also re-establish planting themes in parks and other areas of high recreational use.

“Once conditions start to warm, deciduous trees break their dormancy by budding, ready for spring growth. We are currently working on a spring planting program, which will most likely occur in October and will comprise mostly native trees.

“The ACT Government manages one of the largest urban forests in Australia, containing over 730,000 trees in the urban area, and this work reinforces the ACT Government’s ongoing commitment to the management of Canberra’s world renowned urban forest.”

[Photo by Thomas, attribution licence]