Northern Bendigo Landcare Group will join with 50 volunteers to regenerate the ecosystem at Gold Leaf Wetland Reserve, Huntly on Sunday 14 May 2023, as part of efforts to improve biodiversity and continue the community education process.
The group will be planting 1,000 native daisy and wattle seedlings to create lower and under storey habitat to encourage more native birdlife to the area. This year the group will be looking to consolidate and build on efforts from their last National Tree Day event, which saw the planting of 6,000 wetland seedlings in support of the release of an endangered native fish into the area.
”Northern Bendigo Landcare Group will undertake a planting event on Mother’s Day to provide an opportunity for Mum’s, Grans, Children and Grandchildren to be out enjoying nature and enhancing our community environmental values,” said Ken Beasley, Northern Bendigo Landcare Group President.
These nature care efforts are being made possible by a grant from Planet Ark’s Seedling bank program in the lead up to the organisation’s National Tree Day campaign. The program launched in 2019 with the goal of supplying native seedlings to schools and community groups participating in National Tree Day activities across the country.
“The Seedling Bank is our way of giving back to the thousands of Australian volunteers who roll up their sleeves each year to give something back to the environment as part of National Tree Day,” said Rebecca Gilling, Planet Ark CEO.
“We have already directly supported over 132 groups in their efforts to plant almost 74,000 native trees, shrubs and grasses since the program’s inception.”
Through the sustained support of the 30-member community group to maintain the reserve, locals have benefited from opportunities to interact with nature. Northern Bendigo Landcare Group have given local high school students hands-on experience in building and establishing bird houses and run nature play sessions for younger children.
“The Seedling Bank support funding has enabled the Northern Bendigo Landcare Group to continue supporting the improvements in this public space area; and we hope to see an increase in local engagement to support further environmental maintenance and improvements beyond this event,” said Beasley.
“It is important that small grant opportunities are available at a ‘grass roots’ level; great to see the Planet Ark Foundation contributing to our local community.”
Schools Tree Day (July 28) and National Tree Day (July 30) are Australia’s largest annual tree-planting and nature care events, with plantings taking place across the country on the last weekend of July.
National Tree Day is an initiative organised by Planet Ark in partnership with major sponsor Toyota Australia and its Dealer Network. F
