By Dongyun Kwon
Eco Warriors Australia will receive a grant from the Victorian Government as part of the Green Links Grant Program.
It will collaborate with local schools to revegetate Yering Billabong in Yering for its project Planting the Seed while teaching the students the importance of the environment.
Eco Warriors Australia member Fiona Deppeler said five local schools, Yarra Glen Primary School, Lilydale Primary School, Coldstream Primary School, St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School in Lilydale, and Yering Primary School are involved in the project for Yering Billabong.
“As part of the program, we’ll teach students how to collect local native plant cuttings and they’ll get to propagate and take care of them,” she said.
“We’ll use the native plants that they’ll grow and we will also use some tubestock to revegetate part of the Yering Billabong.
“They’ll monitor their revegetation site, so we’ll give them a really simple digital app and they’ll go out and see how their plants have grown, what wildlife might be using the site.”
Students will revegetate about 10 ha of floodplain riparian woodland in Yering Billabong for two years.
Eco Warriors Australia started the Planting the Seed project last year and it has gone successfully with five different primary and high schools across Melbourne, revegetating seven different sites.
Yarra Ranges Council (YRC) is in partnership with Eco Warriors Australia for the Planting the Seed project in Yering Billabong.
“My understanding is that parts of the site [in Yering Billabong] are in fairly bad condition from an environmental point of view, so it’s a good site to choose,” Ms Deppeler said.
“We really believe we’re going to be able to make a difference to the natural environment by doing the revegetation.”
YRC biodiversity grant program facilitator Isabel Ebsworth said the partnership with Eco Warriors Australia would help the council restore and protect the endangered habitat type.
“We have been working to restore the hydrology on the site so there is more water available throughout the year to support wetland habitat,” she said.
“Along Olinda Creek, we have floodplain riparian woodland habitat. There is not much of this left across the shire as it was historically cleared for agricultural use.
“Planting the Seed is such a great way to get kids involved in protecting their local patch, and we hope it helps highlight the importance of all kinds of habitat to the kids, from floodplain to forest, and the way it is all connected. Ultimately, we hope it inspires them to become stewards for the environment.”
YRC will keep on supporting all the eco-friendly projects to protect the environment of the shire.
“We’ll be supporting all the work the kids do with weed control and additional revegetation with help from our partners at Melbourne Water,” Ms Ebsworth said.
“In the future, the site will eventually become an extension of Spadoni’s Reserve and will be able to be enjoyed by all of the community.”
