Indie students Ava and Aleisha have been going the extra mile as tree planting volunteers in recent weeks with Parklands.

Revegetating the new wildlife corridor at Lake Hume has required a steep walk down and back between roadside and planting site. Ava and Aleisha have been putting in a day a week to help get the planting done in time for spring, and their going the extra mile, quite literally, has been much appreciated.

Thanks to the efforts of many hands, mostly local students, and some long walks in and out, more than 9,000 mixed native seedlings have been planted this winter. The 4.5km long environmental corridor on Lake Hume near Bethanga is now protected and set to grow, and we hope time and a kind coming growing season will transform this bare landscape into a wildlife refuge.

Every aspect of this project has increased our appreciation of the strength of young people, all of whom took the steep, often slippery conditions in their stride.

With vehicle access impossible due to the steep site and wet conditions, fencing, preparation and planting tasks that we would normally have employed machinery for have all been done by hand or accessed on foot. We hope the amazing young people who made this project possible will revisit in 20 years and feel proud of the contribution they have made to restoring  and connecting wildlife habitat on a landscape scale.

This project is supported by Parklands Albury Wodonga, through funding from the Australian Government’s Murray–Darling Healthy Rivers Program.