Wagga residents have called for a heightened focus on creating more leafy tree canopies over the top of the city's boring, grey streets.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Turvey Park resident George Benedyka believes Wagga's current urban tree cover could be "greatly improved" to both promote biodiversity and make some parts of the city more aesthetically pleasing.
In particular, Mr Benedyka sees the centre of Wagga's wide roads and intersections as the perfect location for pockets of greenery.
"With Coleman Street we've got a big wide street and people literally speed up and down it all day," he said.
"If we had plantings up the centre of the road, it would slow traffic down, shade the pavement and make the whole street look better."
IN OTHER NEWS:
The Riverina greens member also highlighted the city's northern suburbs as locations in desperate need of more tree cover.
"You look at some of those newer suburbs and they are just roofs all the way to the horizon," he said.
Mr Benedyka is married to Wagga's deputy mayor Jenny McKinnon.
His sentiment was shared by Bruce Durham, president of the Estella and Gobbagombalin progress associations, who said better tree cover would help cool down the suburbs.
"There's a lot of ornamental trees that go in but they don't grow very quickly so we maybe need to look at some faster-growing ones," he said.
These views were reflected in the results of an urban tree cover survey hosted by Wagga City Council.
More than 330 people responded to the survey, with 91 per cent agreeing there are not enough trees in Wagga.
Council's environment education officer Alice Kent said the city's canopy cover of 10.8 per cent has "lots of room for improvement".
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Download our app from the Apple Store or Google Play
- Bookmark dailyadvertiser.com.au
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters