Tuesday, 1 August 2023

One Tree Per Child

Lee TARLAMIS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (15:08): Friday the 28th marked Schools Tree Day and Sunday the 30th marked National Tree Day. Established in 1996, National Tree Day is a call to action for all Australians to get their hands dirty and plant a tree, creating more green spaces in our communities and showing our appreciation for the importance of nature. Trees are more than just a beautiful sight; they help us with the air we breathe and act as a habitat for millions of species.

I was pleased to attend the City of Greater Dandenong’s One Tree Per Child event last Friday at Spring Valley Reserve in Springvale South as part of Schools Tree Day. One Tree Per Child was started by the late Olivia Newton-John and environmentalist Jon Dee back in 2013, and it was fantastic to have Jon Dee present at this event. Since then more than 26 million trees have been planted by 5 million volunteers donating around 10 million hours. This includes school tree-planting days, where across 10 countries thousands of schools participate each year in getting a student to plant at least one tree. The City of Greater Dandenong event involved the planting of over 2500 trees, shrubs and native grasses by over 800 local grade 3 students from 14 primary schools.

Through initiatives like One Tree Per Child we can make small steps to tackle climate change and create better green spaces for our local communities, and the best part of it is as these students grow up, they will see their tree grow alongside them and see the positive impact it makes to the environment and the local habitat. The collective action of planting trees is not just limited to any single country, community or planting day; it is a global effort that transcends any one country and reminds us of our shared responsibility to protect the environment and our earth. By planting trees we join hands with people around the world who share our vision for a better, greener earth.