Photo Jeff ‘Potty About Pots’ Dawson
Hundreds of primary school students in the Northern Rivers are getting their hands dirty this spring, planting trees and learning about landcare.
A publicly-funded Junior Landcare project is rolling out across the region, building links between local landcarers and their nearby school communities.
Students from as young as five are learning how to plant native trees and care for them as they grow, connecting kids to the positive narrative of ecological restoration.
At Byron Bay Public School this week, students got first-hand First Nations knowledge from Bundjalung woman, Delta Kay, before doing some planting to extend the school’s bush tucker garden.
Habitat restored
They also learned how Landcare is helping bring back habitat for the magnificent glossy black cockatoo, with Harry Hackett from Brunswick Valley Landcare, the group co-ordinating the Junior Landcare program with public funds from the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal.
Survey and feedback data so far is showing over 90 per cent of kids liking the workshops and plantings, and over 80 per cent wanting to do more.
‘I loved how we got to learn new things about nature’, said one student from Ocean Shores Public, where kids also did some weeding. ‘It was super fun, and I want to do it again,’ said another.
A student at the Upper Coopers Creek school planting said ‘it was the best thing I did all month’, while at Wilsons Creek Public, a student reported it was, ‘amazingly good and cool.’
Junior Landcare is coming soon to public schools at Main Arm and Goonengerry.
Of course, planting and caring for trees as they grow is not only fun – bringing back forests is one of the most effective ways to fight climate change, and volunteer local Landcare groups are doing just that.
If you had any land, time, money or inclination, what better way to invest than helping inspire the next generation to engage in ecological restoration?
Ray Moynihan is co-ordinating the current Junior Landcare project, with the not-for-profit Brunswick Valley Landcare.
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