Bellingen Shire Council takes a multi-pronged approach to the management of trees within public spaces across the Shire. The Council endeavours to find a balance between risk management and protection of the Bellingen landscape.
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Tree management and assessment generally always results from a resident making representation to the Council concerned about safety or property damage.
When assessing the health and structural adequacy of trees Council considers the potential damage to private or public property, the potential for personal injury including the impact from falling tree limbs and seed pods, slips, trips and falls as a result of damage attributed to trees and tree roots. In addition the Council must check statutory protection orders, the appropriateness of the species for the location, impact on the community in general and the Council operational budget and any advice received from its insurers.
To place this into context the Council receives on average between two to three dangerous tree service requests per week resulting in approximately 150 requests per year.
Council engages qualified arborists to undertake tree hazard assessments to determine the potential for a tree or one of its parts, to fail and in so doing, injure people or damage property.
The degree of risk or hazard will vary with the size of the tree, type and location of defect and tree species.
The tree hazard assessment that is undertaken involves three components:
1. A tree with the potential to fail;
2. An environment that may contribute to that failure and
3. A person or property that would be injured or damaged.
Following an assessment Council is provided with a report from the arborist to determine the most appropriate action that can be managed within Council’s budget.
With regard to the recent removal of three Bunya Pines the Council followed its risk assessment process and identified that three of the seven trees to be classified as high risk to public safety or property damage which resulted in their removal.