Students plant 575 trees in Exeter (31/7/24)

Exeter will soon be home to 575 more trees thanks to a major planting effort from students across the region. Video by Aaron Smith (31/7/24)

Transcript

00:00This wonderful collaboration we're seeing here is part of our Trees on Farms program,

00:04so we're supporting schools across the state, particularly those with school farms, and

00:08it's all about matching educational opportunities through the Australian curriculum with opportunities

00:14for students to be out in the field learning about the role of trees in the agricultural

00:19landscapes and the many benefits that they bring.

00:22We've got a number of varieties, we've got some paperbarks and some tea trees, and particularly

00:26for attracting the insects, the birds, the pollinators.

00:30We then have a variety of commercial species, including the eucalyptus nitans and the eucalyptus

00:37globulus, our Tasmanian blue gum, as well as some radiata pine and some blackwood.

00:42So as the project evolves and students come through the school, there'll be opportunities

00:47to be involved in things like thinning and pruning and just sort of cultivating and looking

00:51after those trees for different purposes in the future.

00:55So we've got our 14 Year 11-12 students here this morning, and then we've got our 10 students

01:01from both of our primary school feeder schools.

01:03So Exeter Primary School and Beaconsfield Primary are our main feeder primary schools,

01:07so it's really important that we've got some of the future.

01:11So we've got our Grade 5-6s that, by the time they're in Year 11 and 12, the trees will

01:15be quite tall growing with them, so it'd be really nice, and they'll have that ownership

01:18so when they're here having an interview about another project, they'll be able to go,

01:23Oh, look at what I did five years ago with you.

01:25We're all aware, I think, that the globe's changing.

01:29It's getting warmer, we've got these freak weather events, and I think the students that

01:35are younger than me and younger than us that are standing here, is they are keen to look

01:40after the land, and it's going to be really important for us going forward.

01:45So giving them those skills and getting them just interested in the first place, I don't

01:50have all the answers, but my job as a teacher is to connect them with people that do have

01:55some of the answers, and get them keen about getting a job in this industry, and yeah,

02:02the planet's going to need it in years to come.

02:05Agriculture's been in my life a very long time, and ever since I went from being in

02:10primary school to this high school and I found out that there was a Year 11-12 course, I

02:14was like, I'm not going to any other college, staying at Exeter and living out my passion.

02:19It's great, it's good for hands-on, it's also why I decided to come here, I'm not really

02:25a town girl, so being on the farm and helping out with livestock and all that, it's really

02:29great.

02:30You get heaps of opportunities and windows open for you, and yeah, you learn heaps because

02:37it's not just you plan it and you're done, there's so much more to it.

02:41You learn about how it helps the farm, but also the soil and all that.

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