Forest reaps rewards from Community Service Program
The Baldivis Children’s Forest has enjoyed lots of attention from student
volunteers this year as part of the voluntary Community Service Program. 282
students and 43 adults from nine schools/groups collectively contributed 919
volunteer hours during 21 visits to the Forest (Table 1)!
Tranby
College (7 visits), Comet Bay College (5 visits), 1st Rockingham
Scout Troop (1 visit), Kolbe Bush Cadets (3 visits), Mandurah Senior College
(2 visits), Chisholm Catholic College (3 visits), Churchlands Senior High (2
visits), Conservation Volunteers Australia (4 visits), *Rio Tinto Earth
Assist (4 visits).
Students have been enthusiastic and great to work with, displaying some
great leadership, initiative and positive work ethics. Students volunteered
for 1–5 hours at a time and the key to achieving lots of terrific outcomes
was variety. Tasks included irrigation installation, mulching garden
beds and walk trails, cleaning, sorting, repairs, painting and installing a
6 metre banner, building a mia mia, weeding, watering, pruning, monitoring
2008 seedling survival, monitoring a tree decline trial, pegging a new
wetland walk trail, installing trail bollards, creating a seating area,
constructing and painting wildlife nest boxes and injecting trees with
phosphite. I look forward to the continuing transformation of the Forest
from weedy tuart woodlands to beautiful bushland.
In May 2009, the Minister announced that as of 2010, voluntary work will not
be compulsory for high school graduation. Despite this, many schools
recognize the benefits of voluntary community service for both their
students and the community. Some of our partner schools and organizations
have already expressed their intentions to work at the Forest in 2010. I
encourage you to consider helping out at the Forest.
Link to Table 1
During 2009 Community Service Program
sponsored by a
Department of Education and Training Small Projects Grant for $1000 and BHP
Billiton Nickel.
