Planting day to restore former landfill

COMMUNITY members are invited to get their hands dirty this Sunday at Grow West’s annual community planting day.

The event is set to be held at Telford Park in Darley, a former landfill site, and the aim is to plant 4000 native species.

“For the last 20 years Grow West has had a big focus on biodiversity outcomes so really trying to expand and provide a connection between some of our key environmental assets in Moorabool,” said Justin Horne, Grow West implementation committee chair.

“One of our big things that we focus on is the community planting day which we’ve been running for nearly all of those 20 years.”

The event is a partnership between Grow West and the Moorabool Shire with a planting day previously held at the site in 2017.

This year’s planting day will focus on in-fill planting and providing mid story habitat for birds and insects.

“One of the big things we are trying to promote with this is that with revegetation projects, the work is never done,” said Mr Horne.

“We are coming back and doing a bit of what we call infill planting to compliment what was done in 2017.”

Mr Horne encouraged the community to get involved.

“It’s a great opportunity to connect again with the land and the country that they get to live on,” he said.

It’s putting something back for future generations especially as we face some of the big challenges of a changing climate.

“I’m a Bacchus Marsh resident myself so it’s very important for me to get a bit of dirt under my fingernails.”

To register for the event, visit the Grow West website.