The Queenstown Lakes District Council parks and reserves team is working towards producing a tree bylaw or policy for the consideration of full Council, next month, QLDC director of parks Paul Wilson said.

"This is a different layer of tree protection from the Heritage Plan Change. The Plan Change offers a high level of protection for iconic trees but we also need a mechanism for protecting other significant treescapes, particularly within the urban areas of the district," Mr Wilson said.

The Council had significantly increased its investment in trees and it was important that some form of protection followed.

"We have committed $20,000 per annum for new street trees district-wide and $60,000 per annum for revegetation. In addition, a new cyclic street tree maintenance had been introduced for the first time this year to manage the Council?s tree asset of 3500 street trees," Mr Wilson said.

The funding meant that every planting season the Council was planting more trees.

"Last month for example we planted 80 trees on Pembroke Park and 30 dawn redwoods at the Wanaka cemetery. In fact all cemeteries across the district are scheduled for substantial tree planting programmes," Mr Wilson said.

The bylaw would also protect the significant planting taking place in subdivisions and by developers.

"A good example is the huge native planting project that took place last year on the Ben Lomond reserve. That saw 19,000 natives planted on Council reserve, at no cost to the community, it?s a wonderful community asset that deserves protection into the future," Mr Wilson said.

The tree protection, which was still in the process of being formulated, would most likely be based on an internationally recognised system developed by the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture called Standard Tree Evaluation Method (STEM).

The model set a consistent way of evaluating trees; the Council would set the threshold.

"It is not a matter of height or girth, the threshold will be based on matters of cultural, botanical and landscape significance," Mr Wilson said.

The introduction of a bylaw or policy would involve an extensive public consultation period and a lot of public education, he said.

ENDS

For further information please contact Paul Wilson 0274 488 062.

By: Tamah