Planet Ark

The Year 11 and 12 Urban Harvest students participated in Planet Ark’s National Tree Planting initiative. As a team they planted out 80 trees along the west bank of the Darebin/Findon Creek, which is located next to the college.

These trees will help with the creek rejuvenation works the Darebin Creek Management Committee and Whittlesea Council have been undertaking in this space.

Students planted indigenous plants such as Melaleuca Ericifolia (Swamp paperbark), Melicytus Dentata (Tree violet), Callistemon Sieberi (River bottlebrush) and Leptospermum Lanigerum (Wooly Teatree) along the riparian edge of the creek. These plants thrive on the lower two thirds of the creek bank, and they are resilient to flood impacts. 

Areas of dense vegetation along the riparian edge of the creek is critical, as it provides the necessary protection from aggressive birds such as Noisy Miners and Red Wattlebirds. By creating suitable habitat, we are hoping to be able to dramatically increase the abundance of small native woodland birds, such as the Buff-banded Rail (usually only glimpsed briefly as it dashes in and out of hiding). ESC students have managed to spot this ‘Road Runner’ bird (left) several times near the vegetation areas where Urban Harvest students planted trees last year. 

Students worked brilliantly, and as a team they demonstrated ‘care’ when carefully planting out the trees, ‘respect’ toward each other, volunteers and the natural environment and ‘resilience’ when planting trees in challenging conditions!

Students should be proud of and commended for their community volunteering efforts.

Epping Secondary College would like to express our sincere gratitude to the Darebin Creek Management Committee for kindly donating the trees, supplying all the required equipment and providing Education Officers Peter Grenfell and Therese, to help guide our conservation work.

Ms Neri

Urban Harvest Classroom Teacher/VM Learning Area Coordinator