Some info about the Tree Day, i have just realised that i wrote the wrong group that are organising the Tree Day. It is not 'Carbon Catchers', it is called, 'the National Tree Day,".
Tree Day Site Details
Sunday, 01 August 2010 9:00am to 11:00am
Aims of the project: Friends of the Gold Coast Regional Botanic Gardens invite the community to join with them in helping to grow our Botanic Gardens by extending the plantings of the Mangroves to Mountains Walk within the Botanic Gardens.
Organisation: Friends of Gold Coast Regional Botanic Gardens
Site Address: 232 Ashmore Road, Benowa
Benowa, Gold Coast Qld 4217
Nearest Cross Street: Benowa Road
Site Reference: Gold Coast UBD, Map 38, N10
Directions: Entry to Gold Coast Regional Botanic Gardens at Rosser Park is from Ashmore Road, opposite the playing fields of Benowa State High School, about 5kms from Surfers Paradise. It is well signposted as you approach in either direction on Ashmore Road.
Suitable for Children: Yes
Accessible for disabled: Yes
Notes about the day for Volunteers:
Please wear appropriate clothing (hat, covered shoes, long sleeved shirt and long pants recommended. Sunscreen and insect repellant recommended.
The following will be provided: Gloves, Tools and equipment for planting, Drinking water, Snacks, Refreshments, BBQ
Activities that will take place on the day:
- Tree Planting
Website: www.fgcbg.org.au
About Tree Day
National Tree Day will be held on Sunday 1st August, with Schools Tree Day taking place on the Friday 30th July. Last year over 312 000 people, including 229,000 school children dug deep to improve their natural surroundings. Tree Day shows children how easy and fun it is to help our environment.
National Tree Day, (August 1, 2010) and Schools Tree Day (July 30, 2010) combine to make Australia's biggest community tree-planting event. Co-ordinated by Planet Ark and proudly sponsored by Toyota, these are special days for all Australians to help out by planting and caring for native trees and shrubs to improve the environment in which they live. National Tree Day was co-founded by Olivia Newton-John and Planet Ark in 1996 and since then more than 2 million volunteers have planted over 15 million native trees and shrubs! It's a day to get down and get your hands dirty to help the planet!
"I had lots of fun on (National Tree) Day and I can't wait to do it again next year!"
A Special Day For Schools
Each year, around 200 000 Australian school students participate in a special National Tree Day event designed just for children – Schools Tree Day! It’s a wonderful opportunity for children to make a contribution to Australia’s natural environment and have lots of fun at the same time.
Getting involved in Schools Tree Day is a great thing to do. You can see your teachers get their hands dirty, make your school look beautiful, have fun with your friends and help the environment all at once!
What is National Tree Day?
National Tree Day, proudly sponsored by Toyota, is Australia's biggest community tree-planting event and a day for all Australians to help out by planting native trees and shrubs at a Tree Day site in their local area.
Environmental Benefits
National Tree Day aims to inspire, educate and recruit Australians to actively care for our unique land and create future generations of committed environmental custodians.
Environmental Advisory Committee
This committee offers expert environmental and educational advice to help develop the Tree Day campaign.
National Tree Day, (August 1, 2010) and Schools Tree Day (July 30, 2010) combine to make Australia's biggest community tree-planting event. Co-ordinated by Planet Ark and proudly sponsored by Toyota, these are special days for all Australians to help out by planting and caring for native trees and shrubs to improve the environment in which they live. National Tree Day was co-founded by Olivia Newton-John and Planet Ark in 1996 and since then more than 2 million volunteers have planted over 15 million native trees and shrubs! It's a day to get down and get your hands dirty to help the planet!
"I had lots of fun on (National Tree) Day and I can't wait to do it again next year!"
A Special Day For Schools
Each year, around 200 000 Australian school students participate in a special National Tree Day event designed just for children – Schools Tree Day! It’s a wonderful opportunity for children to make a contribution to Australia’s natural environment and have lots of fun at the same time.
Getting involved in Schools Tree Day is a great thing to do. You can see your teachers get their hands dirty, make your school look beautiful, have fun with your friends and help the environment all at once!
Environmental Benefits
National Tree Day aims to inspire, educate and recruit Australians to actively care for our unique land and create future generations of committed environmental custodians.
Local Native Plants
There are many reasons why planting native plants that are local to your area (also known as local provenance) is important.
Local native plants have adapted over a long period of time to the specific conditions in your area. They are therefore best adapted to grow in these local conditions and will be more likely to thrive than plants from a different region.
Local plant communities provide the most suitable food and habitat for local native wildlife. This is especially the case if a mixture of plants is selected to reflect the balance (between trees, shrubs and groundcovers) that originally occurred before disturbance.
There may be a whole range of benefits that local native plant communities will bring, depending on the local, regional and broader context.
Here are just some examples of the benefits of restoring native areas of bushland:
- Supporting native animals: birds, bats, possums, bees and snails and other wildlife, in many cases these are in decline or endangered (eg woodland birds in general are in decline across Australia and some, such as the Regent Honeyeater, are in danger of becoming extinct).
- Helping to combat salinity.
- Improving water quality in a stream thus promoting aquatic life (Trees for Fish!).
- Preventing soil erosion.
- Helping to save an endangered animal from extinction.
- Providing a buffer zone to reduce the impact on sensitive areas of native habitat.
- Providing clean fresh air.
- Increasing rainfall by releasing water vapour (through transpiration) and fine particles such as pollen, which are required to seed rain drops.
- Securing our food resources: around one-third of our food comes from plants that rely on native pollinators such as insects!
- Providing a green corridor that connects up existing remnants of bushland.
In our increasingly urbanised world, much of the threat to our native wildlife is through loss of habitat due to clearing for urban development or agriculture. This can be seen as a "death by a thousand cuts" for our native bushland, which has become increasingly fragmented as a result. Take a look around your local area. Whether you live in the bush or the city, it is likely you will find the last dying remnants of once magnificent stands of trees.
Planting for Climate Change
Of course any plant will help to combat climate change by locking up carbon in its growing tissue. So why plant natives when any plant will do?One of the major impacts of climate change is on biodiversity. Biodiversity is the variety of all living things. Before Climate Change was the "hot" topic in the environmental debate, the loss of biodiversity was internationally recognised as being the major threat facing the future of life on our planet. This threat hasn't gone away, in fact Climate Change has only made combating this threat even more of a challenge.
Apart from the actions that we all must take to reduce our impact on the warming climate, it is vital that we act to help our native wildlife have the best possible chance of adapting to these changing conditions and not go down the path towards extinction.
Planting for Biodiversity
Most of the plants that we depend on for food and other resources have been bred to select for qualities that make them suitable for agriculture. As a result there is often very little genetic diversity. Natural "wild" populations of plants, on the other hand, will vary greatly in their genetic make-up both within a given population and especially between populations growing in different areas. This is part of the diversity of living things that we describe as biodiversity.
Biodiversity encompasses not just the array of different plant and animal species found on the planet, but also the variation between different populations and individuals at the genetic level that may (though not always) be seen as physical differences.
Before Climate Change was the "hot" topic in the environmental debate, the loss of biodiversity was internationally recognised as being the major threat facing the future of life on our planet.
This variety in all living things is important in many ways, such as:
- Helping to safeguard against pests and disease
- Providing sources of new medicines and other plant-derived compounds;
- Contributing to the strength and stability of ecosystems (since a more diverse, complex ecosystem will be more stable);
- Enabling ecosystems to adapt to changing conditions;
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