Street trees and tree planting

Some correspondence over the last month with residents of my ward has related to a fair bit around street trees, and particularly gum trees that are, I think, in shedding season at the moment. There's some streets, Taylors Lane and Turramurra Drive, that just have bark sheeting off. And I've actually noticed the street sweepers out a little bit more in the past week, attending to that. So I think we've responded to some of the residents that had some concerns about the bark that was shedding.

A few other ward issues, just quickly. Concerns regarding the condition of a street tree in Rowville. I've appreciated the support and assistance from officers in assisting and providing my resident with some information. And I will ask a few questions later in the agenda, through the chair, on behalf of the resident in my ward, relating to the concerns about a particular street tree in Rowville.

Thank you, Mayor. And yes, likewise, I've attended a couple of National Tree Day events in Knox. Yesterday we were down at Koolamara Waters Reserve, Councillor Baker and I, and 3,000 native trees, shrubs and ground covers were planted by a really enthusiastic bunch. It was a wonderful family-friendly vibe. It was nice to meet and chat to so many of our environmental and wildlife groups: Gardens for Wildlife, Friends of Koolunga, Friends of Dandenong Creek, Friends of Blind Creek Billabong, to name a few. And it was good to see a big contingent from the Heany Park Scout Group, who turned out in numbers, and of course so many local families and green thumbs generally. And it would be remiss not to mention the amazing barbecue that the Rotary Club of Ferntree Gully put on. They are among the best in the business at the sausage sizzle, which was really popular with the crowd.

And on the 18th of July we had the Knox business National Tree Day event. I think there was about 200 people. Lots of businesses in Knox supported a big group of staff to turn out. Cummins in Scoresby, on Ferntree Gully Road, sent I think half their workforce. It was wonderful to see the networking, the discussion, a really good vibe as we all did our bit to contribute to our effort to achieve 30 per cent tree cover in Knox by 2050, which is one of the key objectives of our climate response plan and our recently endorsed biodiversity resilience strategy.

And just some other issues I've been seeing and hearing about. Trees and bark shedding continues to come up, particularly around central Rowville, and we've had some meetings with Council staff to talk about tree management and how we support conversations with our residents about those issues as well.