U6946040 / Braedy Jaugietis / Words: 540

How would you feel if your local neighbourhood had no trees, no parks or play spaces… Not only would it look pretty desolate, but your mental health would deteriorate and many native species would feel fragmented, lost and without a habitat.

Conserving biodiversity in our urban areas

One of the main goals in biodiversity conservation is to complement existing natural landscapes and native vegetation with sustainable urban designs and developments. In order to accommodate a growing population, Australian governments are increasingly pressured to make more land available for housing. However, this is a considerable risk to biodiversity, as urban expansion is one of the largest drivers of biodiversity loss due to habitat clearing. This presents a challenge to land planners who aim to balance urban development, social values and biodiversity conservation. If planned effectively, urban landscapes are able to coincide harmoniously with natural landscapes without significant environmental degradation.

Ginninderry – sustainable, sociable and desirable

I had the opportunity of completing a day of work experience at Ginninderry – a prime example of one of the most environmentally sustainable suburbs in Australia. Based in Canberra, the development aims to implement a number of sustainable urban designs and strategies whilst balancing the biodiversity values of the fragile box gum grassy woodland it sits on. I participated in tree and shrub planting in their urban parks – which have been found to improve the mental wellbeing of people who spend time in these green spaces.

One of the major features of Ginninderry is their retention of mature eucalypt trees throughout the landscape. In a traditional development setting, there is typically pressure to remove trees to maximise the number of housing blocks that can be sold. However, Ginninderry have taken an approach to retain a large number of mature trees, each one with a different biodiversity ‘treatment’ assigned to them such as mowing, mulching or planting around trees. Mature trees have the ability to support a number of native species within urban environments.

Not only does Ginninderry retain trees – they have also planted a large mixture of native and exotic trees and shrubs along nature strips and within parks. These plantings, once mature, will provide a greater foliage height diversity in all canopy levels, providing more shelter for small native birds and discouraging hyper-aggressive nectivorous birds that displace native species.

Conclusive thoughts – taking a leaf out of Ginninderry’s tree

Ginninderry have planned and designed a sustainable urban system to meet the demands of a growing population whilst also balancing biodiversity values. Residents should be proud to live in a community that values the urban green landscape and the benefits it provides. Perhaps we should take a leaf out of Ginninderry’s tree and encourage governments to invest in more green infrastructure – as demonstrated, green urban spaces provide many benefits such as promoting biodiversity and cultural/aesthetic values, protecting the community from climate change, improving air quality and reducing the urban heat island effect. Going forward, Ginninderry will be an exemplary project for new developments in our growing population.