Today, Wednesday June 5, is World Environment Day and this year’s theme is:

“Our land. Our future. We are #GenerationRestoration.”

This is right at the heart of what Parklands Albury Wodonga is all about. The bush parks and reserves that surround our towns are there to be enjoyed by everyone, but they will only hold value, both to people, and in terms of biodiversity, if we act now to preserve and restore them. As the United Nations says on its website, “We cannot turn back time, but we can grow forests, revive water sources, and bring back soils. We are the generation that can make peace with the land.” (World Environment Day | United Nations). Some of the projects that Parklands has been working on so far this year to restore our parks and reserves include targetting black willows along the Kiewa River, restoring habitat to Baranduda Regional Park, revegetation at Ryans Lagoon, and weed removal and revegetation along the Kiewa and Murray Rivers. Over in Albury, community weeding days in various reserves have seen the removal of over 5000 woody weed stems so far this year.

As we head into the cooler months, there will be opportunities to get involved in conservation projects with Parklands as well as other organisations including local Landcare and ‘Friends of’ groups. Events such as community planting days provide excellent ways to get out in our local reserves and undertake some restoration work. Doing work such as this gives people a sense of responsibility and pride and it’s also a great way to introduce children to caring for the environment – they will be able to revisit the area in the future and see their hard work achieving good outcomes for local biodiversity. If those of us who can chip in just a little bit, it adds up to a big difference and we can absolutely be the generation that restored our parks and reserves to their biodiversity best.

The next planting day is on Sunday 4 August and you can find all the information here. We hope to see you there!