The 2018 Landcare SJ National Tree Day Celebration was held at a drainage basin on Arnold RD, Serpentine on the 29th July.
The clouds threatened, but the day was cool and clear for planters who turned up at 9 am to support the annual event and the children’s workshops from Waste Is My Resource was a great hit once all the planting was done.
National Tree Day was a great opportunity to change an underutilised basin into a natural site for residents and community members to enjoy.
Landcare SJ was able to network will old and new volunteers alike and enjoyed developing relationships with new property owners in the area.
Merri Harris from the SJ Food and Farm Alliance said “It was terrific to see such a broad spectrum of the community who turned out to pitch in”.
Regular supporters Bendigo Bank Byford Branch was in attendance and won the prize for coolest planting boots.
Big thank you to Maddington Toyota for supporting the event and encouraging your sponsored Commonwealth Games medal-winning boxers, Caitlin Parkin and Anya Stridesman, to attend.
Planting native species at the site will increase connectivity for native fauna making it safer for species to move through the fragmented landscape. It will provide food and shelter for our native animals and represents an area for community members to get closer to nature.
The presence of natural plant communities provides ‘ecosystem services’ to human communities, including regulation of air and water quality; safe storage of carbon; modification to local weather conditions; shade and shelter; and positive impacts on mental health. Healthy ecosystems tend to provide more, and better, quality ecosystem services compared with degraded ecosystems and are generally associated with better human population health.
Landcare SJ has been hosting these events annually for 5 years they give the community an opportunity to come together and contribute to restoring their local natural areas.
Keep an eye out for where National tree day will be in 2019.
New staff member Chris Kennedy attended his first ever National Tree Day event and said “I really enjoyed the National Tree Day, I’ve recently moved into the area, it was great to work together with like-minded people to add more native vegetation to the estate.”
The event was supported by Planet Ark, Maddington Toyota, Bendigo Bank, Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale, and the Byford Progress Association.