Who: 'Planet Patrol' which was started by Imogen, Freya and Alastair Wadlow over four years ago. They aim to 'educate, motivate and activate' other kids into protecting our planet. They run regular bushcare and eco-educational programs and run their own two websites: www.planetpatrol.info (for kids 8-12yrs) and www.i-fink.com (for kids 12-16yrs) which they also write themselves.
What they did: With some friends, they planted 60 beautiful Australian native trees. They especially liked that the theme this year was 'native' as they have been working hard to eradicate privet (a noxious introduced weed) from an area of bushland which was said to be 'beyond help' by the Council and bushcare groups. The kids were given permission to 'try' and have now removed around 40% of the privet through organising community bushcare days and are slowly restocking it with Australian natives which are grown by the Council nursery especially for the area from seeds taken from adjoining areas to ensure only trees native to the particular area are established. Native wildlife is returning to the area and open areas are now filled with native wild plants instead of introduced weeds.
The trees were planted in green bags to stop the local bunny population eating them. Planet Patrol have just contributed to the National Australian Rabbit Scan research by spending a weekend counting rabbits!
We are just having some nice rain so the 60 trees have a great start to their lives, even so, each tree was planted with water-saving crystals as things can get very dry during the summer months in Sydney.
