SCHOOLS Tree Day on Friday 28 July was recognised by the Knitting Nannas Coffs Harbour Loop in collaboration with Jetty Dunecare.

A selection of trees and shrubs were planted by the Nannas motivated by their motto, ‘saving the land, air and water for the kiddies’ to protect the environment for future generations.

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Planting trees is an important part of achieving their purpose.

For Schools Tree Day, they met on site with Jetty Dunecare president, Desnee McCosker, who is also a Knitting Nanna.

Desnee brought along various saplings grown at Coffs Harbour Regional Landcare’s nursery in Woolgoolga.

Desnee told News Of The Area, “having come out of a La Niña period. the ground is too wet in the dunes; some parts are becoming swampy”.

There are a few dead trees, evidence of the overly moist conditions.

“Our only hope as bush regenerators is to put in some swamp-loving plants that will better tolerate the conditions,” she said.

From a boot-full of casuarinas, swamp mahogany, some small banksias and cunjevoi lillies, the group started with a melaleuca which is well adapted to having wet feet.

“Melaleuca quinquenervia, is a local paperbark grown from local seed at the Landcare nursery.

“It’s under threat because they are susceptible to myrtle rust, a fungus which can wipe out a whole host of species in the myrtaceae family,” said Desnee.

Planet Ark’s Schools Tree Day and National Tree Day started in 1996 and has grown into Australia’s largest community tree-planting and nature-care event.

“We all support tree planting days, but our main need is to keep the forest trees in our region; it’s ludicrous that we’re chopping them down,” she said.

Tree planting Knitting Nanna, Chris Degan, said it was a nonsense to call the Coffs Coast an
eco-destination when Forestry Corporation is simultaneously destroying eco systems right across the mid north coast.

“People are not stupid; they’ll go canoeing down our lovely Coffs Creek, swim at our beautiful beaches and then experience the wreckage when they take a push bike into our local forests,” she said.

“The clear-felled zones, devoid of life, are not places eco tourists want to see.

“Quite the opposite, visitors will take away an experience of ecocide rather than eco pleasure,” she said.

Knitting Nanna Julie Smith urged the state government and Forestry Corporation to work on a just transition for the workers in the logging industry.

She pointed to a myriad of job opportunities that would come out of eco tourism planning, which would bring real benefits to the area.

She also spoke of the hypocrisy of what is going on before her eyes.

“When I heard that the Environment Minister Penny Sharpe had announced that clear-felling of eucalypt forest is to be continued within the park even after it is declared, I was horrified, as 20 percent of the state’s koalas live within the footprint of the proposed GKNP.

“It’s ironic that Forestry Corporation is busy cutting down beautiful, mature habitat trees that provide such invaluable ecosystem services and we’re out here today planting little saplings,” said Julie.

“I joined Knitting Nannas in Coffs to fight for our environment.

“I have a two-year-old granddaughter; I am doing this for her and for the world she will be living in.”

By Andrea FERRARI