CITY of Kalamunda’s two-year tree retention policy vacuum will continue after council voted 6-3 to reject the proposed local planning policy 33: Future Forest framework late last month.

The framework, which was debated at a public agenda briefing forum on June 9, faced its final vote at the ordinary council meeting on June 23.

During the proceedings, the chamber received a deputation from internationally recognised botanist Professor Kingsley Dixon, who urged elected members to implement the tree protection framework.

“We owe it to the future generations that same promise that John Forrest gave in 1895, that future generations will look back and see the decisions of today in the light of a protected, healthy tree canopy,” he said.

Cr Modolo, speaking to council, put forth an alternate motion to reject the Future Forest policy stating that voting for a flawed policy could do more damage than good.

“The debate tonight is not about whether trees matter, of course they do, and canopy matters, and biodiversity matters,” he said.

“The real question is, are we prepared to accept a flawed policy by way of regulating private land, or are we determined to get this right.

“The former LPP33 fell over because it became difficult to administer, difficult to understand, difficult to apply, and difficult for ordinary people to navigate.

“If we are going to impact people’s land we need to get it right.”

The final decision has furthered the policy gap in the municipality since the original guidelines were rescinded in early 2024, as reported in Applause as Kalamunda bins tree retention policy (Echo News, March 1, 2024).

Kalamunda Tree Canopy Advocates member Hannah Lill said the complete rejecting of the framework leaves the community with no regulatory outcomes after months of preparation.

“Essentially, 16 months of time was spent doing that process with the input of councillors, and they ended up providing no support for the policy at all,” she said.

Nature Reserves Preservation Group member Sue Dowson agreed the administrative process has been deeply exhausting for community members.

“It really is heartbreaking for us as a community to watch what feels like a charade,” she said.

“To have to build all the momentum of protest and try and urge people to speak up and then go to a meeting where so simply, it’s rejected on the basis of it’s not good enough.”

The trajectory of Kalamunda’s urban canopy cover is expected to become clearer later this year when the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage release its updated tree canopy cover dashboard

“The data that’s going to come out at the end of the year will be transparent and it will really enable us to see the true scale of what’s happened with our canopy cover over this period of a policy vacuum,” Ms Lill said.