Jon Dee at National Tree Day
Planet Ark’s National Tree Day over the weekend had a plethora of events starting with Schools Tree Day on Friday, then National Tree Day on Sunday. According to reports around 300,000 people were involved over that time in planting trees particularly species that are threatened. Source: Timberbiz
A State of the Environment report showed that around 1900 species are listed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act with a large proportion being plant species.
Alongside the schools and communities that celebrated the event by planting trees was environmentalist Jon Dee who is the chair of FSC Australia and New Zealand. He was planting trees with students from AGBU Alexander Primary School in New South Wales.
In Tasmania Bushcare volunteers went to the Hobart Rivulet on Sunday to celebrate National Tree Day and planted almost 1000 native trees, shrubs and grasses.
The Hobart Rivulet Bushcare group will have put in more than 3500 native plants along the rivulet in just three years. An incredible milestone for the new Bushcare volunteer group.
A Bush Adventures activity program was run for the kids.
The National Tree Day event is part of work restoring the health of the Hobart Rivulet, removing environmental weeds and replacing them with local native plant species.
Bushcare is the City of Hobart’s largest volunteer program, with more than 800 active participants.
In just one year alone Bushcare volunteers carried out environmental restoration works worth more than $120 000, helping the City of Hobart rid its bushland parks and reserves of environmental weeds, restoring threatened native grasslands on the Queens Domain and restoring degraded bushland and wildlife habitat.
The City of Newcastle celebrated National Tree Day by joining forces with residents to plant 7000 native wetland species at Tarro Reserve.
National Tree Day at Tarro Reserve
Volunteers dug deep to add a range of grasses, shrubs, and trees to an area of around 1400 square metres, helping to improve the health of the wetland and restore habitat for local fauna.
Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said City of Newcastle has targeted areas in the western suburbs that experience hotter temperatures in summer for urban forest planting.
“As part of City of Newcastle’s 10-year Environment Strategy we’re aiming for 40% canopy cover by 2045 to help cool our city,” Cr Nelmes said.
“That’s why we planted more than 550 new street trees in Beresfield and Tarro in the past year, and also celebrated World Environment Day last month by planting 18 trees and 100 small native plants with students from Beresfield Public School.”
Councillor Elizabeth Adamczyk said connecting with local residents to plant trees and learn about nature is a special way to mark the national event.
“Today’s event has many benefits including adding to Newcastle’s biodiversity and vegetation cover, reducing urban heat, and beautifying a much-loved public space,” Cr Adamczyk said.
“City of Newcastle celebrates National Tree Day at a different location in Newcastle every year, with local schools, community and City of Newcastle staff in 2024 again pitching in to plant thousands of trees to improve our city’s environmental health.
Tarro Reserve is a valued community asset, with sports grounds, an off-leash dog area and recreation space for fishing and birdwatching, making it the ideal choice for our planting efforts to celebrate National Tree Day this year.”
National Tree Day is just one of many occasions where City of Newcastle staff have pulled on their gardening gloves with the community to help protect and enhance our natural environment this year.
During the past 12 months, Landcare volunteers, community members and City of Newcastle projects saw more than 125,000 native plants added to the city along the coast, creek lines, beside wetlands and in bushland.
