Office of the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment

22/07/2026

Upper Murrumbidgee Waterwatch is a community-based environmental program connecting people with the health of their local waterways across the Canberra region and surrounding catchment. Working with volunteers, schools and community groups, Waterwatch supports hands‑on monitoring, citizen science ...

08/07/2026

🌿Breathing easy: clean air & the right to a healthy environment
What does the ACT’s new right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment mean for our community? Join us for a free livecast on outdoor air quality in the ACT & the right to a healthy environment.
📅 Tuesday 28 July
🕕 6:00–7:30pm
💻 Online livecast

Hear from Dr Pene Mathew, ACT Human Rights Commissioner, with audience questions answered. The livecast will explore:
✅ what the new right means for Canberrans
✅ the Commission’s review of the new right
✅ air quality monitoring, home wood heaters, transport emissions and more
✅ Your questions answered: register to send us a Q.

Don't miss this opportunity to learn more about clean air and the right to a healthy ACT environment. 👇Register https://actgov.webex.com/weblink/register/r0e7880c5ecc5edc34013c17b37410df8

11/06/2026

15/05/2026

11/05/2026

Dr Ash Bunce has commenced as the new Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment and has been appointed for a five-year term.

The Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment plays an important advisory, reporting and oversight role to the ACT Government to protect the ACT’s environment and supports planning and development outcomes that are ecologically sustainable. Additionally, the Commissioner receives and responds to community concerns about environmental management in the ACT.

Dr Bunce is an experienced regulator and academic with experience delivering outcomes at both national and international levels in environmental protection, conservation, agriculture and biosecurity. He brings extensive experience leading industry transformation, complex stakeholder negotiations and best practice regulatory functions positioning him well to provide strong independent oversight for the protection of the environment and sustainable development in the ACT.

10/05/2026

Botanic Gardens Week is coming up 🌿

This year’s theme, Where Your Health Grows, celebrates the powerful role botanic gardens play in supporting wellbeing. In a busy world full of noise and distraction, the Australian National Botanic Gardens offers a restorative space — somewhere to slow down, move gently, reconnect with nature, and share moments with others.

🌱 Botanic Gardens Week is an annual celebration highlighting how botanic gardens strengthen mental, physical and social wellbeing, while deepening our connection to the natural world. From peaceful paths and native plants to birds, fresh air and quiet places to pause — there’s something here for everyone to rest, reflect and revive.

🔗 Explore Botanic Gardens Week events: https://www.bganz.org.au/news-events/botanic-gardens-week/

08/05/2026

"Globally, trees cut the urban heat island effect by almost 50%."

https://bit.ly/4ttvE9T

Cities around the world rely on trees to keep temperatures lower. New research shows trees are remarkably effective – but can’t do it all

08/05/2026

🗺️ Explore the Canberra Tree Week Trail! 🌳

The Canberra Tree Week Trail invites you to explore a selection of significant and beautiful trees located across the city.

It’s a self guided experience you can enjoy at your own pace, with each tree offering a reason to pause, learn and look a little closer.

🍂 The trail is part of Canberra Tree Week (2–10 May), alongside guided walks, talks, family activities, art, poetry and wellbeing events across Canberra.

➡️ Plan your Tree Week exploration and see what’s on at https://www.act.gov.au/treeweek

01/05/2026

Scientists confirmed that trees in forests actively share sugars, water, and nutrients through underground fungal networks — supporting weaker and younger trees during stress periods in a biological cooperation system operating entirely beneath the forest floor.

Researchers at the University of British Columbia mapped mycorrhizal fungal networks connecting 300-year-old Douglas fir trees across 25 hectares of old-growth forest in British Columbia. Carbon tracer experiments confirmed that sugars produced by large hub trees traveled through fungal filaments to shaded seedlings receiving insufficient sunlight for independent survival. Seedlings receiving underground support showed 25 percent higher survival rates during summer drought compared to seedlings with severed fungal connections.

The largest hub trees maintain connections to hundreds of neighboring trees simultaneously, prioritizing resource flow toward genetically related seedlings during scarcity periods. This discovery fundamentally changes how scientists understand forest resilience, suggesting forests function as interconnected communities rather than simple collections of competing individual organisms. Future forest management will need to account for these underground communication systems in conservation planning.

Source: University of British Columbia Forest Sciences, Canadian Forest Service, Nature Ecology, 2025