Blitz of different kind on freeway

Thousands of native seedlings have been planted across Moorabool to celebrate World Environment Day earlier this month, as part of a planting blitz by Regional Roads Victoria.
RRV Regional Director (Western) Mal Kersting said more than 1800 native trees, shrubs and grasses have been planted in roadside reserves near Myrniong and Bacchus Marsh as part of the organisation’s commitment to create a more sustainable transport network.
“From Bannockburn to Birchip and right across to Gippsland, our teams will be on the ground working hand in hand with communities and planting native species to help sustain the local environment,” Mr Kersting said,
“Locally, we’ll be planting a mix of native species, including eucalypts and acacias, to promote corridors of native vegetation and enhance our biodiversity values, as well as complementing tree planting already carried out along other areas of the Western Freeway and on neighbouring properties.”
The organisation has sourced seedlings from local suppliers and worked with environmental and road safety experts to ensure the new plants will support the existing surrounding environment.
“We always try to protect or rehabilitate the environment where possible, so we’re really pleased that the investment in our proactive planting program will make a real difference locally,” Mr Kersting said.
The planting blitz is in addition to existing environmental initiatives and is focusing on arterial road reserves across regional Victoria which form some of the state’s longest public land reserves.
The initiative is part of Regional Roads Victoria’s environmental commitment to plant 100,000 indigenous trees and recycle one million tyres across the state by 2022.