Water Wells help protect Northern Beaches street trees

Simple water-saving devices for street trees

Project Snapshot

In late 2018, Northern Beaches Council committed to an Urban Tree Canopy Plan that outlined new guiding principles for tree management in the area for the next five years. Key to the plan was the protection and maintenance of the existing tree canopy cover as well as improving tree diversity and health.

Overall protection of the natural environment is key for this Council, which has a tree canopy coverage of 64%, as opposed to many areas in Sydney falling under 20%. The Council wanted to build on this, implementing an aggressive planting program of 5,000 new trees annually, to enhance the character and heritage of the Northern Beaches area.

The Challenges

With such a strong and public commitment to improving tree coverage in the area, the Council needed to have an effective management plan for ensuring new street trees had the best chance of success.

Planting would need to take place using best practice guidelines, and water-wise management of the trees was critical whilst the plants were becoming established.

The project team reached out to Jaybro for tree planting supplies that were cost-effective and could be delivered quickly. These included hardwood stakes, tree ties, and the innovative Water Well water-saving tree collars.

Jaybro’s Solution

Hardwood stakes and rolls of hessian tree ties were supplied to the Council. Additionally, Jaybro supplied Water Wells, which would be used to ensure water was concentrated near the root ball and that mulch remained in place.

The GEOmasta Water Well water saver is ideal for landscapers working on street or urban planting projects. Ideal for moisture retention around plants, these UV stabilized plastic tree surrounds are also effective at concentrating mulch and fertilizer.

Instead of seeing most of the water applied by water truck operators being washed down the gutters, the Water Well offers 26 litres water holding capacity. The 190mm high collar reduces mulch scattering by birds or mulch loss when plants are watered, as well as protecting the trunk and root system from mowing operations.

Ideal for sloping ground and turf edges, they help to reduce water runoff and ensure deep root watering. Reusable and repositionable, the Water Well is an excellent addition to tree planting operations, and it can be used over and over.