TREE WATCH

In Ku-ring-gai, indeed in all areas in Sydney and surrounding areas, we are experiencing unprecedented destruction of our trees, whether it be by illegal removals, poisoning or people simply misusing the 10/50 Rule. Ku-ring-gai Local Government Area (LGA) recorded the second-highest loss in tree cover between 2019 and 2022. The data, meticulously compiled by ArborCarbon for the state government and further analysed by the Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue, indicates that Ku-ring-gai LGA experienced an 8.2% loss in tree cover. This translates to a significant 610 hectares of diminished greenery, a change that took place over just a few years. 

The survey, completed in 2022, had its findings released late in 2023, drawing attention to a rapidly transforming landscape. We predict this will double given the weak state biodiversity laws, the trend of mansion-like housing, and the emerging dislike of trees by people who may not understand the survival of humans depends on healthy ecosystems.

  
Ku-ring-gai Council also reported the greatest increase in tree vandalism in 2023, receiving 618 reports of tree breaches (up from 487 the year before). Of those, council officers issued 90 penalty infringement notices. Sadly, many of the trees being slaughtered, such as the Blue Gum and the Red Gum, are remnants of critically endangered ecological communities found nowhere else in the world!

NOTE: Ku-ring-gai Council has different data to the NSW Government data. Whilst the NSW Government stand by their figures we are looking into it with the company undertaking the tree canopy mapping. 

BGHF is named for the Sydney Blue Gum, one of the most common trees found in the forest, reaching heights of up to 30 metres. The forest provides important habitat and shelter for native animals such as the Grey-headed Flying Fox and Glossy Black Cockatoo – both endangered species.

Once covering large areas of the shale-capped ridge tops of northern Sydney, less than five per cent of BGHF now remains, restricted to the shale soils of Northern Sydney around Pennant Hills, Epping and parts of Ku-ring-gai. The largest surviving remnant of BGHF is in St Ives around Dalrymple-Hay Nature Reserve and Browns Forest.

Scattered around Ku-ring-gai are these stunning trees. Wahroonga Carpark have many gigantic blue gums that will literally take your breath away. We must help protect the few remnant blue gums we have left. 

Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest (STIF) is often found on the edges of Blue Gum High Forest and is dominated by Turpentine, Eucalypts and Ironbarks, together with smaller trees such as the Parramatta Wattle and White Dogwood, and a mixture of grasses.

Communities listed as critically endangered are deemed to be facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the near future.

This forest provides layers of habitat for wildlife, with mature trees providing nest hollows for Australia’s largest owl - the Powerful Owl and also for the Glossy Black-Cockatoo. Follow this link for more information on this critically endangered ecological community.