Perth has the worst tree canopy cover of any Australian capital, with the state government putting it as low as 16 per cent coverage.

Apparantly there is no way to influence demand for housing.

  • Gorgritch_Umie_KillaM
    4·
    11 months ago

    While Nigel Satterley and his weekend tours of his estates have a lot of the blame for the farce that is WA property development. I’m glad this article highlighted the individuals attitude problem in regards trees.

    So many people I know love to cut a tree down, and for the smallest reason. That its messy, in their way, blocks their view, they’re sprinting for the chainsaws.

    I spoke to someone who lives in Bushmead estate where the development has kept a fair amount of trees. And they were complaining about leaves on the road, and in their yard! As if thats a reasonable issue to warrant choppin the trees down. The leaves probably gather so much as a result of the small block big house regime creating brick corridors.

    The housing design in WA is so wrong for our wider life. Good article!

          • Gorgritch_Umie_KillaM
            3·
            11 months ago

            Oh my lord, haha. Thats even worse than i imagined! Those blasted insects! What next, leeeaves!!

              • Gorgritch_Umie_KillaM
                1·
                11 months ago

                I’m a little more hopeful enough people vote and direct their efforts in a way now that will force a higher level of engagement with these sorts of issues over the long term, (ie, heat island effect, aggressive and hard suburban areas). I think the example of Bush Mead is a reasonable start, an estate that maintained some untouched bush, and other older trees in amongst the houses, is an indicator that attitudes have begun to shift a little.

                Athough if we are at the beginning of an attitudinal change, it needs to be large enough to make a meaningful difference. Thats not Bush Mead. And it probably neccesitates changing the way we build dwellings. Options could include smaller footprints, built together with shared walls, i’m sure theres a lot more.

                Age, or more specifically ‘Generations’ (eg, Boomer, Y, X) distinctions is something i put very little weight on now. The defining characteristics that people ascribed seem to me, to be a result of people acting in their own best interests in the micro or macro situations they find themselves on. The tricky part of this is to convince people to assess their self interest in a wider sense. But people, en masse, only seem to take this view on when that wider sense has inarguable existential difficulties.