Wanniassa Hills Primary School students, from left, Finn Pepar, 6, Neika Henson, 10, Eli Pepar, 11, environment teacher Deb Shaw, Tory Henson, 11, and Ethan Carter, 9. Photo by Andrew Finch
Brad says Planet Ark will be celebrating 20 years of planting trees with National Tree Day on Sunday, July 26, and Schools Tree Day on Friday, July 24.
“While we encourage planting natives, if that’s not possible, we suggest planting edibles, to give kids an understanding of where our food comes from,” he says.
“Our grandparents had veggies, chooks and choko vines over everything, but in our parents’ era we lost touch with food, and plantings at schools can help us regain that connection. So we are encouraging planting for health, for nutritional health.”
Environment teacher Deb Shaw from Wanniassa Hills Primary School has been involved in National Tree Day for a number of years and she says the kids love getting outside and getting their hands dirty.
“Over the years we’ve planted around 120 trees in the school grounds for Tree Day, including a mulberry tree and a peach tree,” she says.
“We’ve also propagated seeds in class, which the kids really love, and we’ve previously done propagation workshops with Greening Australia and Frogwatch.
“We’ve also done plantings out on Wanniassa HIlls. When I see the trees coming up, it’s lovely to think that we did that.”
Deb says she loves that the project goes for so many years.
“It’s great to be able to pass on these skills to the kids, and amazing to think that in 50 years they will be able to enjoy the trees. I don’t think I’ll be here!” she says.
Planet Ark says Schools Tree Day is a great way to get kids into nature and give them a love for the great outdoors, as well as teaching them the importance of taking care of the planet.
This year, Deb says Wanniassa Hills Primary will celebrate Schools Tree Day on August 28 by building an Indigenous Medicine and Food garden at the school.
“We’ll also be planting banksias, grevilleas and wattles, as well as medicine and food,” says Deb.
“I’m hoping to create an ‘interpretation wall’ nearby so the kids can look up pictures of the plants and how they can be used, then find them in the garden, and hopefully show other people.
“It will give the kids a better understanding of what they can and can’t use – and that you can’t use everything.”
Deb says they will be including a hop bush, bush tomato, indigofera and lomandra.
“It’s good for the kids to learn what plants you can use from what grows around here, especially natives, and to show that people managed to live off the land when that was all they had.”
National Tree Day started in 1996 and since then more than three million people have planted 21 million trees and plants.
The kids at Wanniassa Hills Primary say they enjoy being a part of that.
“We learn new things about planting, how to grow trees and what sort of soil they need,” says Neika Henson, 10, who’s in Year 5.
“I like planting flowers, too.”
Six-year-old kindergartner Finn Pepar says: “I like watering the best. I like watering everything.”
Year 5 student Eli Pepar, 11, says that planting trees helps him feel better about growing up and the years to come.
“When I think of the future I think of a wasteland, but planting trees that will keep growing for 50 years or more helps me to feel better about the future,” he says.
National Tree Day, Sunday July 26. Schools Tree Day, Friday, July 24. More information at treeday.planetark.org or call the National Tree Day hotline on 1300 885000.
EVENTS will be held all over Canberra, including at the National Botanic Gardens and the National Arboretum, and Haydn Burgess, project manager at Greening Australia, is co-ordinating a public tree-planting event on a 10-hectare paddock on Dog Trap Road near Murrumbateman, 9.30am-12.30pm, on Sunday, July 26, followed by a free barbecue.
“The planting will re-establish the overstory and midstory for the grassy box-gum woodland,” he says.
“We are looking for volunteers to help.
“It’s a critical job, to improve biodiversity, and I feel incredibly lucky to be able to work with landholders and volunteers to increase tree cover across the landscape, and to be working in a job that aligns with my values.”
For more information at greeningaustralia.org.au/events/national-tree-day2
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