BCS Students propagate plants for Landcare
Braidwood Central School (BCS) Year 9/10 Agriculture students are the latest contributors to the Southern Tablelands Tree Start Growers Network. The Growers Network brings together volunteers from Upper Shoalhaven and Upper Murrumbidgee Landcare districts to grow thousands of native plants for farms, bush regeneration, erosion repair and mine rehabilitation across the Southern Tablelands. The project is supported by funds from the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife through their Landscape Resilience Program.
Under the guidance of their teacher, Jill Kuchel, and Upper Shoalhaven Landcare chair Mary Appleby, students learned about local native
plants, genetic diversity, seed collection and propagation, the importance of re-establishing native plants across the landscape, and the sorts of projects the plants will contribute to.
Willing hands mixed potting medium ingredients, sowed seed of locally collected tree, shrub, grass and herb species, labelled everything appropriately, watered trays and installed them in the school nursery, where they will be cared for.
“It’s fantastic to have this young, energetic cohort involved in the Growers’ Network,” Mary said. “They’ve sown over a thousand tubes in one afternoon lesson, and have signed up to look after them in BCS’s nursery. I’m impressed!”
The plants students grow will contribute to the BCS agriculture program, with the remainder going to Landcare projects.
This project received funding through the Landscape Resilience
Program of the Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife.