TREE MANAGEMENT
With over 820,000 trees lining Canberra’s streets and median strips, shading its parks and public spaces and enhancing its private land, tree maintenance in our city calls for a concentrated effort. In line with the ACT Government’s Urban Forest Strategy, our focus is to support you in liaising with relevant parties as you navigate the protection laws and initiatives affecting the trees on your property or development.
Built for the brief.
A tree management plan isn’t a formality; it’s a working document. Ours are tailored to your site, project scope and specific trees. They cover everything from species identification and canopy mapping to protection zone specifications and construction methodology. The ACT Government or council will need to see it before work begins around a protected tree. Your builder and project team will refer to it throughout. We work with residential property owners, developers, builders, architects and town planners typically from the design stage, where early arborist input saves the most time and money.
Know before you build.
If your project could affect a protected tree (through excavation, construction, demolition or changes to drainage) a tree management plan will be required as part of your development application in the ACT. That applies to residential builds, commercial developments, subdivisions, infrastructure works and strata projects. The earlier you engage us, the less likely you are to hit a compliance wall mid-project.
Tree zones and bonds.
Tree protection zones define the area around each tree that must remain undisturbed during construction. We calculate these to Australian Standard, incorporate them into your plan and can certify that protection fencing has been correctly installed. If protected trees are involved in your development, the ACT Government may also require a tree bond. It’s a financial security held until construction is complete and an arborist assessment confirms no breaches have occurred. Gold Leaf can prepare the documentation to support your bond application and carry out the final assessment to get it returned.
Project arborist.
As your project arborists, we apply our strategic insights and expert knowledge every step of the way. We’ll help keep things progressing with minimal budget blow-outs, inefficiencies and interferences, from design through to construction and maintenance periods. This includes the development and implementation of your tree management plan, as well as monitoring the correct applications of tree protection plan measures.
