The Horsham Rural City Council adopted the Draft Greening Greater Horsham - A Municipal Tree Strategy at its monthly council meeting held on Monday, September 27.

The strategy will now be released for community consultation.

The draft strategy will establish a vision and goals for the long term management of trees across the Horsham municipality.

Councillors supported this recommendation, all agreeing trees were vital for the changing climate.

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Council David Bowe said he saw the need for planting more trees in the community given the issues with climate change.

"Planting is a tree is not as simple as digging a hole," he said.

"Careful planning is required.

"I want to encourage the community to have their say."

Councillor Haenel also flagged the need for more trees as the climate changes.

"I feel it's very important that First Nation are being consulted," she said.

"We need these green spaces."

Councillor Penny Flynn said the strategy would be more proactive than reactive.

"We need to make sure the tree species is appropriate for the changing climate," she added.

Cr Flynn said trees in the main street where the retail stores are is greatly needed.

Councillor Ian Ross raised concerns about the document's title, which only covers the city area of Horsham, not the rural areas of Horsham municipality.

"It only covers certain parts of Horsham," he said.

"The city are of Horsham only covers one per cent of the area of the municipality."

Cr Ross raised a motion to amend the title to Greening Greater Horsham and Urban Tree Strategy.

Cr Ross also pointed out the need for understory and ground cover as well as a canopy.

"To achieve biodiversity, this strategy does not cut it," he said.

Cr Ross said he believed the title should be consistent with the contents of the document.

"We should cover the whole municipality," he said.

"This document doesn't do that, it covers urban design."

The amendment was lost to have the name changed.

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