A street tree planted in Samson, east Fremantle, held up by wooden support poles.

FREMANTLE council has finally got ahead of its Urban Forest Plan tree-planting targets.

After being pinged in 2021 by the Fremantle Environmental Collective for failing to plant the number of trees it promised, a council spokesman said they’re now more than 2500 ahead of schedule. 

Fremantle had one of the lowest canopy coverages when the state’s planning department surveyed the metropolitan area in 2014, which in part prompted the drafting of the UFP. It aimed to increase the canopy coverage from less than 10 per cent to at least 20 per cent by 2027 through planting 1000 trees each year.

Twenty per cent coverage would see a total of 23,615 trees and a ratio of 1.2 people per tree. 

In 2021 the city planted 1488 trees, 1148 in natural areas throughout the city and 340 in streets and parks.

The spokesperson said the latter would be a bigger focus this year.