ROTARY DISTRICT 9600
D9600 COORDINATED TREE PLANTING PROJECT – APRIL 2021 TO: All D9600 Club Presidents
BACKGROUND
In Ian Riseley’s year as RI President (2017-2018), he encouraged Rotarians to focus on environmental sustainability, particularly with regard to degraded land areas. As such, he challenged every Rotary Club throughout the world to plant at least one tree per Rotary member.
With DG John Lane’s approval, D9600 easily achieved this target by planting 1414 trees at the first D9600 Coordinated Tree Planting Event at John Sprent Reserve in Moggill Brisbane on Saturday 28 April 2018.
The event was such a success that DG Wendy Protheroe agreed to a second District Tree Planting event in her year. Another 1750 trees were planted at John Sprent Reserve.
LAST YEAR
Not to be outdone, DG Darryl Iseppi agreed to have another District Tree Planting Day and this was planned for Saturday 4 April 2020 at the reserve at 85-91 Ross Road, Upper Kedron.
Unfortunately, COVID restrictions caused the cancellation of this event, much to the disappointment of the Rotary / BCC team which had put so much time into preparing for THE Tree Planting Day.
THIS YEAR
This year, DG Neil Black has also agreed to have another District Tree Planting Day and this is planned for Saturday 24 April. Please note that the venue for this year’s planting is still the reserve at 85-91 Ross Road, Upper Kedron.
This event ties in beautifully with Rotary’s recently announced new area of focus “Supporting The Environment”.
The attached document from Council gives information about the reserve and Council’s thoughts about Rotary’s involvement in the proposed planting for the site. We are hoping that this venue, which is closer to the centre of the District 9600 than John Sprent Park at Moggill, will encourage involvement from a wider range of D9600 Clubs.
The Brisbane City Council team led by Nic Holmes has been so impressed with the enthusiasm of the D9600 planting teams that he has suggested that we aim for 2500 - 3000 trees this year.
As with previous years, Brisbane City Council will be providing the plants, preparing the planting sites at the reserve and providing follow up maintenance for the plants. While we obviously can’t expect representation from every Club in the District, based on the success of our previous planting days, the proposed target should not be a problem.
We aim to start planting at 9.00 am and wrap up as close to mid-day as possible. I will be prevailing on Karana Bellbowrie Rotarians to once again provide refreshments (including the now world famous scones) for those attending.
We will also be ensuring that this event receives the widest publicity possible so we would ask all those attending to wear their Club shirts for a combined D9600 Planting Team photo on the day.
Council is intending to have members of their Environmental Education team on site to provide activities for any school aged children who might be attending. This is a great opportunity for any Clubs involved in the Rotary Junior Community Awards programme at their local schools to encourage students to attend and gain points towards their awards.
In order to complete the planning for the day, could I please ask you send me the following Information by Friday 19 Mar 2021 at the latest?
1. Number of Club members who would like to attend the event. Please note that members of Rotaract, Interact and Earlyact as well as Peace Fellows, would be more than welcome to help with the tree planting.
2. Any School groups that might like to be involved and indicative numbers attending. Your Club’s support will help to rehabilitate another degraded site to the benefit of the environment and the surrounding communities.
A more detailed programme for the planting day will be forwarded once it has been received from Council.
Let me know if you need any further information about the proposed Tree Planting event. Hope to see you on Saturday 24 April.
David Kearney
Coordinator - D9600 District Tree Planting Working Group
Karana Bellbowrie Rotary Club rclubkd@gmail.com 0419700647