Kyabram is likely to lose 80 per cent of its current town-based trees in the next 30 years if nothing is done to plan for their replacement.
And Campaspe Shire, as a whole, will lose a “significant percentage” of its urban trees in that time if action is not taken to plan a re-planting and replacement program.
Of the 3846 urban trees in Kyabram, only 16 per cent have good structure, a legacy of pruning for powerline clearance and the impact of developments.
Some 30,000 trees — which would cost an estimated $170 million to replace to the same size and structure — across the 10 largest Campaspe Shire towns were assessed in preparation for a report made to council on an urban forest plan.
Kyabram has been targeted in the report for an increase in tree planting, to 130 trees a year, as part of the plan.
A recommendation for council to spend the next 10 years planting 980 trees across the shire every year and review the process at the halfway mark was a key component of the report.
The tree health “check-up” stated the percentage of trees in good health was “less than desirable”.
Kyabram, Tongala, Stanhope and Girgarre all have less than 15 per cent of tree canopy cover, which is about half of the recommended levels for towns in Victoria.
Echuca, the largest town in the shire, has a tree canopy cover percentage of just 11 per cent.
Colbinabbin (seven per cent) is the worst, followed by Echuca, with Girgarre, Stanhope, Kyabram and Tongala all between 12 and 14 per cent.
Only Rushworth, which has a tree canopy cover above the town of 33 per cent, hits the state target.
Campaspe Shire will spend $100,000 a year as part of the strategic tree planting program and another $30,000 developing an in-house tree management guide.
They also plan to spend $20,000 a year engaging and educating the community about the importance of urban trees.
As a final step, the shire will employ an additional full-time person and have a dedicated truck with watering ability to implement the plan as part of the shire’s parks and gardens team.
By 2030, the shire hopes to have 80 per cent of the shire’s urban trees in good health and a quarter of trees considered “young”.
Kyabram was identified as one of the towns in danger of being impacted by the decision to plant a single species, ornamental pear (callery pear), on several of its residential housing subdivisions.
Trees in each of the towns were assessed for their remaining life expectancy and locations for future plantings were identified as part of the 35-page document preparation.
Campaspe Shire Councillors endorsed the plan for a 28-day public exhibition period before it is resubmitted to council for adoption.
Four years ago, council was briefed on an earlier version of the plan, then called the urban tree management plan, but that plan did not include Stanhope, Girgarre, Lockington and Colbinabbin.
Kyabram has the third most urban trees in the shire (3846 or 12.1 per cent), behind Echuca (11,408 or 36.2 per cent) and Rochester 4852 (or 17.2 per cent).
Tongala is fifth on the list (1852 or 6.7 per cent), Stanhope next with 1614 urban trees and Girgarre, which has 1459 town-based trees.
Colbinabbin is at the bottom of the 10-town list with just 317 trees.
Fifteen of the 20 species identified as the most prevalent in the Campaspe Shire, through the urban forest plan, are native to Australia.
The five most dominant (five per cent or more of the total urban tree population) are river red gum (9.90 per cent), grey box, red ironbark and callery pear (5.10 per cent).
Cr Tony Marwood said the report would help the shire better prepare for the future by investigating opportunities for towns to have trees.
“Trees don’t live forever and we need a plan on an ongoing basis how we replace them,’’ he said.
“There will be good opportunity for people to have an input to this plan.’’
Cr Colleen Gates said it was great to get this document out, explaining there were “quite a few people interested in this, particularly given the variation in climate”.
“It provides information about existing tree canopy and explains how we need to build resilience by planting different trees.”
Cr Daniel Mackrell said Lancaster, Tongala and Kyabram used to have a lot of orchards.
“Tongala used to have the golden mile of trees. Some of those canopies will come back under this plan, not on private land, but in council controlled environs,” he said.
Cr Chrissy Weller said every township had its own streetscape and it would be great to hear from the public.