On a warm and sunny Saturday 5th April 2025, Greater Sydney Landcare hosted a special Creating Canopies planting, with a twist. This event wasn’t just about greening the city—it was also a birthday celebration!
Kireth Sandhu reached out to us in January with an idea: could he celebrate his 25th birthday by planting trees with his friends through Creating Canopies? We loved the concept, and after speaking with our partners, Blacktown City Council generously offered a reserve in The Ponds as the planting site.
Kireth rallied his mates, and on the day 27 enthusiastic volunteers joined us. The event was led by Creating Canopies team members Bryce Doyle – Natural Resources Manager, and Environmental Field Officers Michael Keith and Kylie Burrows, who guided the group through the planting.
Bryce summed up the vibe perfectly: “Great people. Good energy. Fun party atmosphere with lots of chatting. Even some passers-by wanted to get involved.”
Kireth said: “Thank you again for helping to arrange the Saturday planting activity. My friends had such a great time, and the Creating Canopies team was awesome and well equipped for the morning.”
The group planted an impressive 815 native trees and shrubs, watering and guarding them to give them the best start. They planted a mix of canopy and midstorey species including:
- Gum trees (Eucalypts and Angophoras)
- Wattles (Acacias)
- Paperbarks (Melaleucas)
- Tea trees (Leptospermums)
- Coffee Bush (Breynia oblongifolia)
- Sweet Bursaria (Bursaria spinosa)
- Rice Flower (Ozothamnus diosmifolius)
- Parrot-peas (Dillwynia sieberi)
- Native Peach (Trema tomentosa)
This reserve has seen two previous rounds of planting through the Creating Canopies program in 2023 and 2024. This latest effort continues to build on that work—helping restore the Cumberland Shale Plain Woodland plant community, which is native to the area, and increase habitat for wildlife.
And yes, of course there was birthday cake! The group sang happy birthday to Kireth at lunch, celebrating a day that was meaningful, memorable and just a little bit different.
We’d like to thank Kireth for choosing to give back to nature for his birthday, and to his friends for showing up and getting their hands dirty. Thanks also to Blacktown City Council for supporting the day by providing this site and for increasing canopy cover for their community.
Tree by tree, we’re making Greater Sydney cooler, greener and more liveable into the future.
Join Blacktown’s Bushcare Program
If you’d like to contribute to environmental efforts in the Blacktown area, you can volunteer to become a Blacktown City Council Bushcare volunteer, and regenerate bushland. No experience is necessary as training is provided.
Get Involved in Creating Canopies
Find out more about Corporate Volunteering with Greater Sydney Landcare here. Be sure to download our Corporate Volunteering Info Pack.
If you’d like to find out how to get free trees planted on your land, visit our Register Your Site for Trees page.
Come along and plant trees with Creating Canopies. Find out what events we have coming up on Greater Sydney Landcare’s Eventbrite page.
About Creating Canopies
Landcare NSW and Greater Sydney Landcare are planting 200,000 trees as part of the Greening our City program to help reduce urban heat in Greater Sydney. Proudly funded by the NSW Government.
