New growth for city trees

Published on 10 December 2025

Council endorsed a new Tree Management Policy and Guidelines at the December Council Meeting, to help shape our urban forest for generations to come.

“We are committed to creating a cooler, greener city with more plantings that will help shade Maribyrnong and improve health outcomes for everyone,” said Mayor, Cr Mohamed Semra.

Trees are essential to thriving communities, contributing to better health outcomes, reducing stress and improving well-being.

The Tree Management Policy is centred around increasing canopy cover and shade in our City with a focus on species that will survive the climate of tomorrow.

The Policy does this through creating clear directions on what Council plants, when and how trees can be removed, how we maintain over 50,000 trees, adapting new stock to face future conditions and how we protect our community’s investment in trees.

The Tree Management Guidelines provide practical information to ensure transparency on how decisions are made. Importantly it recognises the value of trees and the significant investment Council makes throughout the life of a tree.

In September and October, we asked our community to share their thoughts on the draft Policy and Guidelines.

This feedback included calls to increase plantings and update the canopy cover target in our Urban Forest Strategy from 20% to 40%. Changes to these targets will be considered in the coming years once we have a better idea of how the Policy works in practice.

Read the Policy and Guidelines on page 56 of the agenda to learn more.