Urban Forest Action Plan – Tree Planting Program
Council is working to transform the City’s urban forest into a highly-valued, well-resourced and thriving asset. Our street and park trees provide the community with a range of environmental, economic and health and wellbeing benefits, such as:
- Providing homes for local wildlife
- Making local streets more liveable by mitigating the Urban Heat Island Effect
- Decreasing energy costs by providing more shade
- Creating a sense of place and beautifying our streets and parks
- Improving air quality and providing storm management services
Each year we plant and renew street trees in selected built-up areas prioritising areas where tree canopy cover is lowest. This includes:
- Planting new trees on nature strips without trees
- Planting new trees in parks
- Replacing existing trees of poor health, structure, and/or short useful life expectancy
- Fulfilling street planting requests by residents (where possible)
- Renew street planting to creating aesthetically pleasing and consistent streetscapes
By 2040, Council’s Urban Forest Action Plan is aiming to increase canopy cover from 17% to 20% to achieve this Council has significantly expanded our tree planting efforts and committed to plant 80,000 trees in our streets, parks and natural reserves by 2025.
2024 Frankston tree planting program
The 2024 Frankston tree planting season has started. This year we are planting over 5,000 trees in both our local streets and parklands throughout the municipality. The planting program runs from Autumn to Spring each year.
The newly planted street trees are maintained during establishment for two years. This includes watering during summer periods, weed control, re-staking and formative pruning. Then they come under the regular 2 year cyclic maintenance program.
This year’s program has been put together from resident requests and from identifying streets in need of canopy cover. Our Tree Management team selects the most appropriate species for a location based on local conditions, climate, neighbourhood character and relevant master plans and strategies.
Planting trees on public land without consent from the Council isn't permitted. Residents who wish to plant a tree on their nature strip are encouraged to lodge a request for tree planting. It is important to select the right tree species for the right location for maximum long term benefit.
All new requests for street trees will now be considered for our 2025 planting program.
To assist Council in caring for your new street tree, we recommend regular watering. A bucket of water twice a week in warm weather, and once a week in mild weather, assists in establishment, keeps your tree healthy and increases growth rate.
2024 Tree Planting Map