Who said a cloudy, rainy day can’t be a fantastic day out?
On Saturday 5th August 2023, around 40 volunteers came from throughout Sydney to join the Creating Canopies team at Nangarin Vineyard Estate in Picton. This area was once home to the first vineyards in New South Wales, but today it has become a beautiful residential area.
Despite a bit of rain and cloudy weather, the hardworking and eager volunteers managed to plant 500 trees and shrubs as well as many native grasses. This will create new habitat in the area as well as canopy cover and cooling shade in the years to come. And we bet the new plants loved the extra drink.
Thank You Nangarin Landcare
The local Landcare group, Nangarin Landcare, dedicated several days prior to the planting in clearing the area of invasive species including Lantana and Privet. This made room for the installation of valuable canopy and midstory species which will eventually support local Koala populations.
Helping Local Koalas
Our tree planting volunteers were treated to a fabulous catered lunch while hearing about the local Koala population in Wollondilly and how to help protect them.
The speakers were ecologist Kane Durrant of Wild Conservation (a wildlife monitoring and relocation, and environmental management company) and Sophie Blair of Greater Sydney Landcare’s Southwest Sydney Koala Project.
Volunteers learned about:
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- the rise in koala sightings in the area, particularly due to the upcoming breeding season,
- how their planting on the day helps the koala population – with some of the trees planted being koala food and shelter trees, and
- how they can get involved with GSL’s koala programs and conserve our iconic species.
Volunteer Feedback
When asked what they thought of the event, volunteers said: “Amazing! So much fun and was great to help a good cause.” And: “Enjoyable and satisfying activity. Good amount of instruction.”
Their favourite parts of the event were:
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- “Meeting new people”
- “Doing the work!”
- “Friendly group of people. Excellent catering.”
- And one person “liked that there were lots of people of all ages helping out.”
The last word belongs to Sophie, who said: “Overall, it was great to see the enthusiasm of everyone getting involved and getting their hands dirty for nature. Thank you to all that attended and made the day a whole lot of fun.”
Join a Creating Canopies Tree Planting
We can’t wait to put on more events and we hope you’ll join us in making Sydney a better place to live, work, and play. Check out our Eventbrite page for upcoming planting days.
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.
