Creating Christchurch’s Urban Forest — LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AOTEAROA

Christchurch City Council has created an Urban Forest Plan to increase the tree canopy cover across the city.

What is an urban forest?

An urban forest is the interconnected network of trees within an urban environment including trees within our parks, streets and even those within our residents’ gardens.

Benefits of urban trees

· Improves water quality.

· Improves air quality and sequesters carbon.

· Supports biodiversity.

· Mitigates the urban heat island effect.

· Improves physical and mental health.

· Increasing considered essential infrastructure in cities with intensive development.

Ōtautahi’s Urban Forest Plan

· Provides a road map for maximising the size of the city’s urban forest.

· Ensures that the forest is healthy, resilient, and enduring.

· Is uniquely Ōtautahi and Te Pātaka o Rakaihaū.

How was the plan developed?

Christchurch City Council developed the Urban Forest Plan in collaboration with:

· Mana whenua

· Public input – through consultation

· Council service units/external experts

· Horticulturalists and ecologists

· Tertiary institutions

Guiding principles

Right location, right tree, right function

Trees are grown in locations that allow them to reach maturity and benefit the local environment.

Working together

We collectively manage the urban forest on both public and private land to improve environmental, economic, social, and cultural benefits.

Guardianship

Our actions today will provide and protect a sustainable urban forest for future generations.

For everyone

The urban forest will be distributed across the city to support the wellbeing of our residents and the natural environment.

Christchurch city’s urban forest will provide the public with more tree canopy covered recreational spaces.

Goals

Plant – the urban forest canopy is growing sustainably.

Nuture – our urban forest thrives with healthy, diverse, and resilient trees.

Protect - our urban trees are valued and looked after as critical infrastructure.

Involve – our urban forest is looked after through public participation and partnerships.

Current tree canopy distribution across Christchurch

Objectives

· Increase canopy cover across our city.

· Focus on getting the overall canopy cover within our park spaces to 40%.

· Providing a network of native forest patches across the city

· Increasing the visibility of indigenous species

· Planting trees in sites where they are able reach maturity.

How long will it take?

It takes up to 50 years for trees to reach maturity.

· The targets are based on 50 years to allow time for juvenile trees to mature.

· The plan needs to be resourced within the Christchurch City Council’s long-term plan (once adopted). This allows time (over 10 years) to initiate planting and to start to realise some of the benefits of the plan.

Challenges

Intensification often leaves little space for trees in urban areas.

· Intensification – as we intensify, we leave little space for trees. We need to prioritise trees alongside critical infrastructure.

· Climate change – as our climate becomes hotter some of our existing tree species will suffer. We need to select tree species that are suited to our future climate.

Urban forest planting programme for parks

· 50+ parks per year

· Aims for 5000+ trees per year.

· Prioritises low canopy areas.

- This article is based on a talk delivered by Christchurch City Council’s Urban Forest Manager Toby Chapman to Lincoln University’s Landscape Architecture School students in March 2024. Thank you to Toby and CCC for sharing this content with us.