The Grow West Community Planting Day, held Sunday 19 July at the W. James Island Reserve in Myrniong, surpassed its target when 140 members of the community put more than 6,300 indigenous plants in the ground over a 3.5hectare area.
The 6,300-plant achievement reaches two milestone for those involved – it is one tenth of the amount of trees Grow West hopes to get in the ground this year, and about one tenth of the amount of trees that Conservation Volunteers Australia (CVA), who run the W. James Island Reserve, hope to plant on the Island site.
Grow West Works Facilitator Trevor Prowd says “it was a great day. We put 5,000 trees in the ground by lunchtime which was everybody just getting in there and working hard right from the word go.
“For Grow West it’s a huge achievement. There’s no doubt that Grow West really has become a community project, we had a lot of local people including volunteers from CVA and the Friends of Werribee Gorge and Long Forest Mallee and the Victorian Mobile Landcare Group, and the Lions Club providing a great lunch, who helped out. These people are what makes days like this a success.
“We were also pretty lucky with the weather. The ground was soft and the day wasn’t as harsh as Myrniong can be this time of year, which just made it that bit easier. Now we’d like just a bit of rain to give the seedlings a drink. I’m am very pleased with the outcome and want to thank all those involved.”
Grow West Planting Day Highlights
> Over 6,300 seedlings planted
> Over 140 people took part
> Over 3.5hectare area planted
> Warm weather and soft soils made for enjoyable planting
> Conservation Volunteers Australian, Port Phillip and Westernport CMA, Friends of Werribee Gorge and Long Forest Mallee, the Lions Club, and Victorian National Parks Association all contributed.
> 5,000 plants were put in the ground by lunchtime
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