WATCA - WA Tree Canopy Advocates

08/05/2026

🎂💚🌳 Happy 100th birthday to the incomparable Sir David Attenborough. He’s our Hero.🥰💪🌳💚

23/04/2026

🏡We know how to build suburbs with trees because we've done it for generations. But under WA's current state planning framework, every single tree can be cleared before development even begins.🪓We're building new suburbs with no trees and it's not sustainable. We need urgent planning reform so new suburbs retain canopy. Trees + housing don’t need to compete - we can do both. Change the rules. 🌳🏡

11/02/2026

🌳💚Trees are the key to a cooler city. Govt needs to act. 💪

16/01/2026

🛎️This afternoon, the WA State Government released its long-awaited Urban Greening Strategy for Perth & Peel.

The strategy has been billed as a ‘roadmap to boost tree canopy and cool our cities’, but the detail doesn’t match the promise.

❌NO ACTION PLAN.
❌NO TIMELINES.
❌NO ACCOUNTABILITY.

❓The strategy contains no published action plan and no enforceable commitments.

🏡 Around 80% of tree loss happens on private land, yet responsibility is pushed onto councils, schools and community groups - while developers, responsible for most canopy loss, face no consequences.

🪓 The strategy acknowledges that retaining mature trees is the most effective form of urban greening, but offers no enforceable measures to protect them.

😠 Despite being presented as a ‘roadmap’ to ambitious targets, it provides no credible way to get there.

🥵 A roadmap with no direction, and a govt unwilling to regulate developers or ban their political donations, will only lead to hotter, less liveable cities.

08/01/2026

🤔 Melbourne gets it. Why don’t we? A new suburb in outer Melbourne is mandating 30% tree canopy + 2 trees per home to reduce extreme heat.🏡The local council says it's creating happier neighbourhoods with less reliance on cars. Meanwhile in WA:
🪓New outer suburbs are almost treeless 🥵in Australia's hottest capital with the lowest canopy cover. Trees aren't optional - they're infrastructure. New housing shouldn't mean treeless suburbs. If we retain just some mature trees and mandate new ones from day one, we tackle heat at the planning stage.🌳Full story in comments.

12/12/2025

🥳Cockburn is the 8th Perth metro council to adopt the WALGA Local Planning Policy to protect large trees on private land. 💚🌳Cockburn joins Nedlands, Bassendean, Peppermint Grove, Cambridge, Fremantle, South Perth and Victoria Park in leading the fight against our Tree Canopy Crisis🥵. Is YOUR suburb protected? If not, let’s get your council moving!💪. Perth has the lowest tree canopy in Australia + 80% of tree loss is happening on private land.🪓

07/11/2025

😳It’s official - Perth’s Tree Canopy Crisis has hit the big time. Cheers The Bell Tower Times for calling it.🌳

The WA Museum will soon exhibit a tree so residents of Perth's sprawling new suburbs can remember what one looks like

03/11/2025

🪓🪓Perth lost A QUARTER of its urban tree canopy between 2011 and 2020. 😱That's 25% of our precious trees gone in 9 years. We must protect our future and protect the trees we have left on private land. Source: WALGA State Budget Submission 2024. ✅TELL YOUR COUNCIL, LOCAL MP AND YOUR FRIENDS!

17/10/2025

🗳️WA Council elections close 6pm tomorrow - Saturday, 18 October.

If you haven’t posted your ballot, it’s too late for mail, but you can still drop it off in person at your local council office before 6pm.

✅ Vote for candidates who value:

• Protecting our tree canopy + green spaces
• Cool, shady and liveable suburbs
• Sustainable development

Every vote helps protect our future - please make yours count. 🌳💚

13/10/2025

❌You can’t cool cities with dodgy data.🥵WA Labor promised to double Perth’s canopy and 🌱 plant 1 million trees. Instead, they’ve fudged the tree figures, counting 🐄 paddocks and bushland as “urban canopy” to make the numbers look better than they are.😠We deserve honesty and real action to make our city liveable into the future.🌳

The WA government is facing renewed questions over its plans to boost Perth's tree cover, with experts saying current funding will not come close to delivering on Labor's election promises.