FORTY students from Manea Senior College, Child Side School, and Bunbury Catholic College planted thousands of native seedlings in the Blackwood catchment between Kojonup and Boyup Brook recently.
The students propagated and nurtured these seedlings in school shade-houses over the last eight months and were excited to take their baby trees and shrubs to their new home.
HotRock has partnered with Blackwood Basin Group to revegetate the Qualeup lake system that provides habitat for migratory birds. Fourteen different species, native to the region, have been planted.
This overnight excursion included a Noongar cultural experience.
This important work is part of the HotRock Seed2Tree program. This year HotRock is working with six high-schools in Western Australia to plant 20,000 native seedlings propagated by students on four different planting sites in Boyup Brook, Beverley, Northam and Bolgart in the Wheatbelt.
Participating students learn how to germinate, grow and plant their own native trees. They also come to understand the process of restoring local ecosystems and gain a sense of place within the local environment. Seed2Tree addresses local salinity issues, improves catchment health and river water quality, provides habitat for biodiversity, including endangered species such as the Black Cockatoos, and reduces atmospheric carbon levels.
For more information on Seed2Tree, please visit www.thehotrock.org.au/seed2tree
Education is the foundation of a cultural movement towards sustainable living. HotRock's mission is to make sustainability education accessible, relevant and fun for secondary school students by providing schools with innovative and effective sustainability learning experiences that engage
students' ‘head, heart and hands’. HotRock sees students as the future leaders and provides the knowledge, skills and values to inspire them to drive a cleaner, healthier and sustainable planet.
For more information, please visit: www.thehotrock.org.au.
