Street and park tree maintenance programs

Council runs a variety of planned arboriculture (tree) programs of work that contribute towards effectively maintaining the health of trees in Brisbane and minimising the risk of trees to people and property. Maintaining our trees in good health helps to maximise Brisbane’s tree canopy as fewer trees need to be removed.

Ongoing planned programs include juvenile tree maintenance and suburb tree maintenance.

Juvenile tree maintenance

To ensure young trees grow to maturity with good structure and form, this program is undertaken on trees approx. 3 to 5 years in age to reduce the risk of growth problems as the trees mature.

The program includes formative pruning, fertilising, mulching, removal and replacement of under-performing trees, replacement of missing trees and protection of trees which have been ringbarked by whipper snippers/brush cutters or mowers.

Suburb tree maintenance

This program aims to proactively inspect 60,000 Council trees each year and undertake maintenance works on trees identified in need of attention to keep the trees in good structure and health. This includes branch pickups, pruning works, replacements and health management to manage pest infestations and diseases. Doing this minimises the risk of a Council tree causing harm to people or property, or disruption to services.

To achieve this, an 8-year cycle has been developed. Each year, suburbs are scheduled for proactive inspections by qualified arborists.