We love Knox for its beautiful natural environment; it is very easy for our community to connect with nature, and enjoy leisure and recreational activities. The natural environment in Knox is highly fragmented, and because of this, it is essential for us all to work together.
By working closely with community groups, residents, state, and national parks agencies we can ensure a consistent approach to the management of pest plants and animals, and continuous improvement of the quality and connectedness of natural environments within the municipality.
Proposed actions for our environment in the Climate Response Plan:
Adapt and preserve our natural environment
We need to protect and buffer the current areas of high biodiversity and the natural environment from the effects of climate change.
It’s not just parks and reserves. The design of streetscapes including the planting of street trees, the inclusion of water sensitive urban design assets, vegetation and grassed areas can help to reduce urban temperatures and provide biodiversity and habitat benefit.
We plan to do this by:
- Investigating the preparation and inclusion of additional planning provisions to minimise development from occurring in high bushfire risk areas
- Developing a fire management plan that allows for vegetation to adapt to future changes in climate patterns
- Developing street tree plantings for maximum urban heat island mitigation;
- Obtaining advice on liability issues relating to tree maintenance and pest management due to climate impacts
- Developing an Urban Forest Strategy
- Establishing more climate resilient plant species in Council plantings
- Improving Council wide tree planting diversity that incorporates both native species for biodiversity benefits and introduced species for improved cooling benefits
- Developing a lower impact approach to vegetation management through collaborating with power network managers
- Revising streetscape models to minimise damage to existing infrastructure assets resulting from poor street tree selection
- Investigating the preparation and inclusion of additional planning provisions that can retain tree canopy cover, and encourage or increase additional tree canopy cover.
