Torquay Rotary and Surf Coast Shire members plant trees

MEMBERS at the Rotary Club of Torquay have done their part towards a worldwide effort to plant 1.2 million trees in a little over eight months.

The 10 members of the group joined three staff from the Surf Coast Shire to plant 75 varnish wattles and common correas in only 90 minutes in part of the Deep Creek Nature Reserve on Thursday.

Rotary Club of Torquay president Gaynor Schols said the effort was inspired by Rotary International president Ian H.S. Riseley, who challenged every one of the 1.2 million Rotary members across the world to plant at least one tree between the start of the Rotary year on July 1 and Earth Day on April 22.

“We planted 75 and we’ve got 41 members, and there will be more from other clubs – Drysdale have done 800 trees. Many Geelong clubs have finished their plantings; they did them at the beginning of summer.”

Club community service director Michael Reed said the part of Deep Creek where the planting took place had been degraded by people using the area as an unofficial mountain bike track.

He said having more hands to help meant the shire’s staff could cover more ground.

“We said ‘we’re happy to come give you a hand with this stuff – if you dig the holes, we can stick the trees in and put stakes around them’.

“A job that would have taken them a day has taken us an hour and a half.”

Mr Risely – an Australian Rotarian from Sandringham – outlined the thinking behind his challenge in a speech about Rotary’s goals for the 2017/18 year.

“The time is long past when environmental sustainability can be dismissed as not Rotary’s concern. It is, and must be, everyone’s concern,” he said.

“It is my hope that the result of that effort will be far greater than the environmental benefit that those 1.2 million new trees will bring.

“I believe the greater result will be a Rotary that recognizes our responsibility not only to the people on our planet, but to the planet itself.”