A recent inspection by our administration revealed a number of street trees in Ormonde Avenue, Millswood have died and should be replaced.

This blog post is a plea after my blog post of 5 March to you to advise your council on what you see as the right action going forward.

Ormonde Avenue, Millswood

Mindful of the fact that over 50% of our 26,000 street and park trees are mature aged trees and will reach their maximum lifespan sooner rather than later they (our administration) determined it would be prudent to investigate and consider the possibility of either replacing the whole street of trees now or staging their replacement.

We do have an emerging dilemma facing Council. If we are not proactive about creating a second generation of street and park trees we may find in the not distant future that the majority of our mature trees (over 13,000 of them) may die in a relatively short span of time. This potentially could see the City of Unley not live up to its logo.

Can you imagine 13,000 trees needing to be replaced in say a  10 year time frame, 1300 per year. Our current proactive program is seeing us replace only 300 per year. Add the loss of private trees at an ever increasing rate as people buy into leafy Unley and then remove the tree in their backyard and the picture is not so bright.

Residents of Ormonde Street have an opportunity to contribute to the decision making process having been surveyed just last week.

The decision made on this street is an important one. You have a great opportunity that most will not have and that is to inform how we address not just Ormonde Avenue but the rest of the City of Unley going forward. Other streets will inevitably present as this one has, an like I suggest neighbouring Millswood Crescent may in the not too distant future.

Please, please, please have your say. If you don’t respond to the survey we will not know your opinion and you may by default not be happy with the decision made.

Please consider what we are trying to address and carefully consider what you think is best, not just for you and the neighbourhood today. Consider your kids and grand kids who will inherit the answer we arrive at. And don’t be afraid to offer something different to the options proposed.

The future of Ormonde and maybe the City of Unley is in your hands.