Urban Forest Strategy
The Mornington Peninsula features a unique landscape with significant tree canopy cover, essential for cooling urban areas, enhancing liveability, and supporting biodiversity.
However, the canopy is unevenly spread across the Peninsula, causing vulnerable communities to face greater impacts from climate change and urban heating. Urban development and climate change further threaten the urban forest, which is vital for providing shade, cooling, and reducing vulnerability to extreme heat.
In response, the Shire has developed the Urban Forest Strategy(PDF, 6MB), aiming to increase resilient canopy cover across the Peninsula. This Strategy seeks to mitigate urban heat, enhance the quality of life, and support the region’s unique natural environment and biodiversity, addressing the challenges of climate change and urban development.
Vision:
The following was vision was developed by our Citizens Panel, and strongly supported by the community during consultation:
The future Mornington Peninsula urban forest is growing, thriving and resilient, providing the diverse ecological, social and economic benefits to all people and creatures who live in the unique Peninsula Forest.
Themes
The themes identified below reflect the specific features and needs of the Mornington Peninsula and will guide our response into the future.
Listening to our community
The Urban Forest Strategy was developed in conjunction with key stakeholders in the community, including the vision created by the Shire’s Citizens Panel in late 2023. In June 2024, the draft Strategy was presented to the community for comment and review, with a very strong response. We received 150 surveys, and connected with over 600 people overall, with overwhelming support for the vision, themes and targets in the strategy.
Working together on our urban forest
Our urban forest provides benefits to everyone on the peninsula, and it will take all of us to act as it’s stewards. Over 60% of our urban land is private, with approximately 20% under direct Council control, which means that we will need to collaborate, coordinate and support each other across land types and boundaries.
What will happen on my nature strip?
A nature strip is the strip of public land between a property boundary and the adjacent roadway, and can serve some critical functions. They often include walkways, footpaths, services (underground and overhead) as well as vegetation and trees, which provide crucial urban cooling, shading and biodiversity benefits.
The Shire delivers an annual program of tree planting on nature strips and in public open spaces. This program prioritises townships that are identified as having low canopy or high heat vulnerability, but includes trees in all areas. You can submit a ‘request for planting of trees’ via this online form: Create Customer Request.
You can also do some on your nature strip, such as landscaping and planting grasses and shrubs, however this requires approval and in some cases permits from Council. Find out more here: Nature Strips - Mornington Peninsula Shire (mornpen.vic.gov.au).
Where will planting happen first?
The Strategy outlines the highest priority townships based on existing canopy cover and heat vulnerability of the communities that live there. These priorities will help us determine the areas of highest need, while noting as well that every township requires support and investment. Within these townships, the sequence of planting will depend on a range of factors including priority footpath network, needs of community and services, existing canopy, space and land constraints.
How will we make sure we reduce risks from trees?
We understand that our urban areas are often not the ideal places for trees, and there are potential risks and hazards created. We also know that areas without any trees are hotter and less appealing, increase cooling costs and lead to poorer health outcomes. Our Urban Forest Strategy sets out the vision for planting the right tree in the right place and spreading all of the benefits of a lush urban forest with the whole community, while minimising future impacts and damage to infrastructure.
Protecting existing trees and vegetation
Private development on the Peninsula is governed by the Mornington Peninsula Planning Scheme. Many areas are covered by Vegetation Protection Overlays (VPO’s), Environmental Significance Overlays (ESO’s) and refer to Neighbourhood Character guidelines and studies. The Shire is advocating for improvements to the planning scheme in a number of ways to improve protection of existing trees and vegetation while also acknowledging the need for additional housing in Victoria and the region.
You can find out more here: Improving Bushfire Planning Provisions - Mornington Peninsula Shire (mornpen.vic.gov.au) and Amendment C219morn: Housing for the Peninsula - Mornington Peninsula Shire (mornpen.vic.gov.au).
Shire officers also work to limit and prevent illegal vegetation removal on both private and public land. If you think that trees or vegetation are being removed illegally, we’d encourage you to take a photo or record any other evidence (including license plate or description of any vehicle involved), where safe to do so, and report it to Council or via the Snap Send Solve app.
My community group wants to plant an area nearby, what can I do?
If your community group would like to plant an area, please email climateresilience@mornpen.vic.gov.au
There are a lot of factors that need to be considered, including who owns the land, are there any site constraints or safety concerns, who will provide and plant the trees, who will maintain the area. We can help review the details and overcome barriers where possible.
How will we track progress?
Progress against Our Urban Forest Strategy targets and objectives will be reported annually. Note that it may not be possible to update all targets this frequently due to the cost and complexity of gathering and analysing the data, this will be done as and when available. We will also investigate opportunities to share live and interactive data on our urban forest when possible.