Our Get Your Plant On Journey (words by Lyds):
I’ve been running my own native re-veg project (re-establishing bush where it had previously been removed) for the last 6 years at my folk’s lifestyle block in Kaipara Flats. When Saltwater Eco came into being we wanted to connect the two elements together, and by doing so added greater depth to our company’s sustainability focus.
Three years ago we created and continue to uphold our Plant a Native Commitment, planting a native tree for every client that we have each season. The first couple of years we went to organised community planting days and sourced trees from local nurseries. This season we revved up our efforts considerably by deciding to grow all our own trees from seed AND plant them out at our very own community planting day.
Saturday’s Get Your Plant On event was the result of 18 months of growing and nurturing our tree babies from pot to paddock. With the help of our lovely volunteers we managed to plant an impressive 800 trees in just a few hours, a fantastic achievement!
So you many be wondering “What has planting trees got to do with Surfing and Snorkeling?” It’s a valid question to which my answer would be… Everything! Restoring areas of bare land back to productive native bush has countless local benefits: It creates precious habitat and food sources for wildlife and it’s easy in the eyes for starters. Furthermore, these actions are felt further afield and have greater, wide ranging advantages encompassing our hills, valleys and harbours. For an ocean based business like Saltwater Eco the link is this: The more native trees planted, significantly reduces the amount of sediment and nutrients entering our waterways as runoff when it rains. This in turn improves water quality in our rivers, estuaries and oceans, which are all pretty darn important!!
Our re-veg project is far from complete but the sheer transformation we have witnessed; from bare paddock to flourishing bush, alive with native bird song and all within such a short time has truly been inspiring and an experience worth sharing. Here at Saltwater Eco we champion an holistic approach, connecting people to nature through recreation and empowering those very people to conserve and protection that environment they enjoy to recreate in.