Ardeer South primary school has reached a major environmental milestone after planting 1800 trees and plants on the school’s property since 2021.
The school started planting trees as part of the ‘more trees for a cooler greener west’ program, which aims to improve air quality, create more shade and cool down the school grounds during summer.
The program also seeks to boost the number of trees in the western region of Melbourne which has below-average tree canopy cover and high heat vulnerability.
Principal Andrea Markham said the results of the school’s tree planting campaign has been extremely positive.
“Already in those two years it’s created a canopy around the school … We take part in biodiversity audits every year and we’ve noticed since having the trees around the perimeter of the school we’ve increased the amount of wildlife,” Ms Markham said.
“It promotes caring for our school environment too. The kids that planted those trees a few years ago have now seen what the benefit is to our school environment.”
More recently, students at the school planted trees as part of National Tree Day, which took place on July 27.
“The year six students designed that area to be what they were calling ‘our backyard forest’ and then they worked with their prep buddies to plant the 50 trees on National Tree Day,” Ms Markham said.
“It’s about embedding those sustainability practices across our school and promoting sustainability with our kids and you can see that journey that’s happened in the last five years.”
Environment Minister Steve Dimopoulos and Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny visited the school on September 14 to announce a $9.5 million funding boost to plant 500,000 more trees across Melbourne.
According to the state government, a new tree canopy mapping project will provide up-to-date, high-resolution data on urban tree canopy cover across Melbourne, which will enable planning, smarter investment and more effective tracking of progress over time.
Mr Dimopoulos said the additional trees will create more liveable neighbourhoods.
“We are helping to cool down Melbourne’s suburbs by planting half a million more trees where they are needed most,” Mr Dimopoulos said.
