Boardriders staff keep Spring Creek growing

BOARDRIDERS have continued its growing collaboration with Torquay and District Landcare Group, joining forces again to hold the 15th annual Revegetation Day.The initiative aims to restore and protect the Spring Creek valley, which has been damaged by land clearing and ongoing housing development.

Earlier this month, more than 30 staff and their children were all smiles working on the hilly terrain west of Duffields Road.

Over the past 15 years, the Boardriders Foundation have helped to plant more than 12,000 native trees, shrubs and grasses.

The Spring Creek valley is a biodiversity hotspot and provides crucial habitat for a range of native plants and animals including koalas, brush-tailed possums and growling grass frogs.

The area is also an essential green space for local residents in an increasingly urbanised landscape.

“Every revegetation planting we do is crucial,” Torquay and District Landcare Group chair Caitlin Ovens said.

Not only is it about getting the plants in the ground and helping to rehabilitate the land, but it is also about people being able to learn and connect to Country and to their community.”

More than 30 staff and their children worked on the hilly terrain west of Duffields Road.

Volunteers worked to plant Bellarine yellow gum and install guards designed to protect the endangered eucalyptus subspecies. The Bellarine yellow gum is found only in the Bellarine Peninsula and Torquay areas, and has lost up to 98 per cent of its former habitat.

Volunteers also helped to mark rabbit warrens and remove invasive weeds. All native trees and shrubs planted on Revegetation Day were propagated by Westcoast Indigenous Nursery.

Over the past 15 years, the Boardriders Foundation have helped to plant more than 12,000 native trees, shrubs and grasses in the Spring Creek area.

The Spring Creek valley is a biodiversity hotspot.

The Boardriders Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation associated with worldwide surf label Quiksilver and supports a range of local and global initiatives with a focus on environmental, educational, health and youth-related projects.

“As a global business, with team members in many regions, we are so lucky to have an opportunity to influence our environmental destiny by the choices we make and the actions we take at a local level,” Boardriders Foundation’s Eve Hollenkamp said.