Have you noticed trees with purple paint on them in central Wagga? Photo: Wagga Wagga City Council.
Wagga Wagga City Council (WWCC) has been painting sections of street trees throughout the city purple to highlight those that have have been vandalised through unauthorised lopping, pruning or poisoning.
“Council’s been doing this particular strategy over the past few months,” Cr Jenny McKinnon said.
“Sometimes it might be poisoning, but it’s also cases where people do lopping or inappropriate pruning that damages public street trees.
“Council is wanting to just alert the local community to the fact that it is an illegal act that comes with a penalty, and that the community needs to know that this sort of action leads to loss of amenity.”
“It is a local council matter and they will liaise with police,” a NSW Police Media spokesperson said.
Street trees are public property, and council warns that anyone found vandalising or removing trees without the necessary approval will be subject to a fine of up to $6000 on the spot under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979.
“Residents are reminded to not take the maintenance of the street trees into their own hands as their actions can affect the health of the trees which are a large part of the liveability of our city,” a WWCC spokesperson said.
“Where tree vandalism has occurred, council staff will do what they can to restore the health of the tree. In a lot of cases, tree poisoning is serious and there is little chance of saving the tree.”
A tree on Trail Street is in “such bad condition” that Cr McKinnon thinks there isn’t any hope for it.
“People do these things to trees for all sorts of different reasons,” she said.
“It could be because of the mess the trees make in autumn. Leaves can get into gutters, and that disturbs people. Tree roots can be considered to be a problem, and sometimes people just want a better view.
“I don’t believe that is the situation in this particular case, so I don’t know why this has happened, but it is absolutely to be not tolerated in our community. People need to be aware that they must not take these kinds of actions.
“Council’s trees and park staff look after our street trees as if they were their own, and it’s a really distressing thing for council staff to have to deal with as it is for the neighbours.”
Cr McKinnon has been vocal about her concerns about the impacts removing trees has on our canopy cover in the past as trees help lower the overall temperature, a concern shared by Wagga Ratepayers Association secretary Dr Lynne Bodell.
Dr Bodell hasn’t seen the trees that were allegedly poisoned, but agrees that having shade trees improves heat regulation despite some trees causing allergic reactions.
“Compared to the new suburbs that don’t have a lot of the shade trees, they’re a lot hotter,” she said.
“So it really does improve our area. Obviously, over the years, there has been potentially the wrong trees planted in some spots. … But overall, I think we need to encourage the trees and certainly not remove them.”
“You know what our heat is like here at summertime; we need as many trees as we can possibly get, and this kind of damage is absolutely not appreciated,” Cr McKinnon said.
WWCC hopes the purple paint will draw attention and educate residents on the importance of leaving maintenance of street trees to council staff. The council is urging residents to report incidents of tree vandalism.
“Most people do not connect vandalism with tree health,” the spokesperson said.
“Residents can request tree pruning and maintenance by contacting council.”
