The City of Stirling is working to punish - and publicly brand -Â residents who vandalise its new street tree plantings, even as residents petition the council to do more to save mature trees on private development sites.
About 200 of the 4500 street trees planted last year have reportedly been removed or damaged, and the city is now placing tree-sized signs at the sites of suspected vandalism.
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"For repeat offenders we would put a sign out the front of your house to say someone has vandalised a tree on this particular property," Stirling Mayor Giovanni Italiano told Radio 6PR on Wednesday.
"If someone has lopped a tree purely and simply to get views of the city it is quite obvious it's the owner of the property.
"If we can't prove who it was, the sign will go up and stay there for 12 months.
"If we have a verge tree that someone breaks, damages or destroys, we will be out there looking for them. We are looking at setting up CCTVÂ in hotspots where there is a lot of damage occurring."
But the mayor conceded the council had no power "whatsoever" about tree felling on private property.
His comments came on the morning the council received a petition from residents pleading for stronger restrictions on private developers, after a beloved mature ghost gum on public land was cut down last week because part of its trunk had grown onto the site of a private development.
![An example of the City of Stirling signs "shaming" tree vandals.](/web/20160929105251im_/http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/q/k/g/r/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.grpro4.png/1475045047765.jpg)
The local heritage society said it would have been on the city's planned significant tree register, but the register had not yet been created.  Â
"We the undersigned residents of the City of Stirling are opposed to the removal of mature trees from the development at 73 Central Avenue / Cadney Lane in Mount Lawley. We also request stricter tree protection laws on all public land," the petition read.
![A resident's plea went unanswered - the tree went down last week.](/web/20160929105251im_/http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/q/9/l/1/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.grpro4.png/1475045047765.jpg)
"Stop the unnecessary removal of mature trees.
"Come up to date with other cities around the world and over east where existing grey infrastructure is developed in harmony with the existing green infrastructure."
!["Forty years to grow and forty minutes to cut down," said the neighbour who took this photo.](/web/20160929105251im_/http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/q/9/p/i/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.grpro4.png/1475045047765.jpg)
The city said the tree was planted by a member of the public in an awkward position 30 years ago and could not be saved because it was in the way of the building's foundations. But it also confirmed council officers had not asked developers to redesign around the tree.Â
Planning and Development director Ross Povey said the recently adopted Street Reserve Tree Policy did protect verge trees.
![The site is now devoid of trees.](/web/20160929105251im_/http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/q/9/p/l/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.grpro4.png/1475045047765.jpg)
"The City is committed to increasing its tree canopy by protecting existing street trees and requiring additional plantings within the road verge and on development sites," Mr Povey said.
Other Perth councils, including the City of South Perth and the City of Bayswater, have struggled with people vandalising street trees in an era of increasing concern over tree canopy cover in Perth, with a loss of tree canopy cover linked to increased temperatures and public health issues.
Stirling's own research estimates that no matter how many trees it plants on public land, without keeping mature trees on private land its urban area will lose 50 per cent canopy cover within 15 years – so less than five per cent of its urban area will be shaded.Â
It is working on a policy that seeks to provide additional requirements for the planting of trees on development sites but the road to such a policy has proved fraught with difficulty.
It has already spent five years working on a landmark policy to protect trees on private development sites but the policy proved too expensive for a local council to implement and enforce without a legislative framework or funding support from the state.
It has implemented a less ambitious policy in the interim while it continues to work on the legislative detail and funding issues.Â