OEK ~ WE ARE PLANTING TREES!

I had the pleasure of meeting Trevor and his wife.
I went to their house to pick up 650 little babies ~ Baby trees I am talking about!!!


In 20 years Trevor and his wife have seeded nearly 20,000 trees!!!
They see it as one small step in their hopes to help reforest Australia.
It’s a big job they do – mixing up potting soils, planting, watering, nurturing ~ until they’re big enough to say goodbye.

They volunteer for an organization called Trees for Life.
http://www.treesforlife.org.au/home/
It is a huge undertaking and requires a lot of effort from many people.
Trees for life have volunteers that collect seeds from all the different natural habitats.
More volunteers then organize the seeds and allocate them to growers, like Trevor.
Others find people who want to grow them – they found Artemis.
So I had the pleasure of meeting them ~ sharing stories of our lives over a cup of tea.
For many volunteers, as so Trevor, it is what they do in joy and for love of the earth.

Since colonization of Australia we have had been cutting down and changing our native forests ~ now they estimate we have lost four-fifths of our total forests in Australia.
Rushing into the future with economic growth ringing in our ears we have not cared about what the future consequences would be. Now some of the people alive at this time are realizing the incredible negative impacts this has had on all our river systems, our soils, our wild creatures…

So now these trees are starting a brand new life. It is tough out there in the mallee.
Not enough rain, sandy soils that in the summer are blown by the wind and can bury them, rabbits, insects …
2 years ago I planted at Artemis with some help over 1,000 trees. Then the drought came.
Lot of buckets of water were carried over sandy soils to where these small trees struggled to live… 150 survived.
But that is 150 new trees that were able to overcome all the odds.
That’s bravery.


If we just sit in the negatives we loose out.
It is my choice to be apart of life – even by doing such a small thing as planting a tree.

Now whenever I go to Artemis – I plant trees.


These trees are under the OEK banner. Our OEK students come to our language centre ~ supporting us which then allows me to go and plant these trees.
So by learning English at such a great place you are also helping the environment!!!

In this wonderful way you are also involved!!!
May they grow, creating habitat for the wild birds and animals – and may they call back the rain …..

More stories and photos will follow