Young students turned up in spades this morning for Queen Elizabeth Park’s Arbor Day planting, donning gumboots and gardening gloves.

Well over 100 students aged eight to 12 from Raumati South School, Paekakariki School and Te Ra Waldorf School went along to the planting day organised by Greater Wellington Regional Council.

Councillor Penny Gaylor was there to welcome children, parents and teachers, speaking about the importance of protecting our regional parks with climate change in mind.

“Arbor Day is all about bringing people together for the good of the environment. Events like this provide fantastic opportunities for children to engage with their local parks while also enjoying a fun day out.

“The work done by these students today has been fantastic – now we need to focus on how we can create more opportunities for children to engage with the environment in the future.”

The children planted an incredible 1000 native trees within 45 minutes – wearing gloves and beanies generously donated by Mitre10 Mega Petone, which they took home afterwards.

When asked how many of them had planted a tree in Queen Elizabeth Park before, about three quarters of the children put their hands up.

Cr Gaylor says among a number of environmental benefits to planting trees, is the prevention of coastal erosion.

“We already know the area around Queen Elizabeth Park is prone to erosion. Greater Wellington often uses planting trees as a mechanism to bind soil, it’s something we will be doing more of in the future and it’s great the kids here today are getting into the habit.”

Attendees were treated to a barbecue and refreshments after a hard day’s work.

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