Media Release Friends of Sherwood Arboretum  (The Local Bulletin November 2019)

Arbor Day keeps on growing!

Few of us would dispute the value of trees to the health of our planet and indeed our own well-being.

So, it’s good to know that a 129-year-old tradition of planting trees on Arbor Day is alive and well thanks to Brisbane City Council’s offer of free native trees to local primary and secondary schools.

Last month, students of Sherwood State School joined the Assistant Curator of Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Prue McGruther and the Friends of Sherwood Arboretum Association (FOSA) to plant six new Eucalypt and Acacia trees in the heritage-listed Arboretum.

The Assistant Curator (pictured) also used her notebook computer to show the students how our native trees support such a rich diversity of wildlife and insect life.

In 1925, 100 students of Sherwood State School, each with a tree, made local history by completing the first community planting in the newly established Arboretum.

Today, with a collection of over 1100 Australian native specimen trees, Sherwood Arboretum is the third and newest member of Brisbane Botanic Gardens.

Arbor Day in Queensland began on the 1 August, 1890, when the then Curator of Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Philip MacMahon distributed 2496 trees to schools.

The idea for Arbor Day (arbor is Latin for tree) first began with a far-sighted U.S. journalist and politician, Julius Sterling Morton, who in April 1872 convinced his fellow Nebraskans to plant more than a million trees.

Morton’s initiative to establish Arbor Day, which certainly benefited Nebraska’s economy and a landscape in need of trees, has now spread world-wide to more than 50 countries.

You’re invited to a free guided tree walk in Sherwood Arboretum at 9.30 am on Saturday 23 November by booking now with Brisbane Botanic Gardens on 3403 2535 from 8.00 am to 4.00 pm Monday to Friday.

For more information, please email FOSA at info@sherwoodarboretum.com.au

 

image captions

The Assistant Curator explains how trees are a welcome home for wildlife.

Miguel and Millie (from left) plant an Arbor Day tree.

Ban Ban Springs State School, near Maryborough, celebrates Arbor Day in 1920. (SLQ)