Tree planting: Project management activity with Murtoa College students
In July we had about 10 students from the year 12 VET program at Murtoa College join us for a day of tree planting at the Rupanyup Reservoir.
This activity was part of a project management assignment for the students, where they had to get involved in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of a project.
We had our first planning session a few weeks before the planting where the students got involved in deciding what we would need for the day, and helped complete a Job Safety Analysis/Risk Assessment for the activity. Later on, we will have the students back out again to assess tree survival at the site and see how we did!
Despite some light showers on the day, we were able to get almost 300 trees planted.
For each tree, individual holes were dug to make sure the soil was nice and loose and the trees were sitting snugly. To give the trees a bit of a head start, we added a bit of blood and bone to each hole, and watered them in to settle the soil around their root balls.
Due to grazing pressure from hares at the site, we opted to use more robust plastic tree guards. However, we plan to reuse them once the trees have grown and don’t need them anymore.
About the site
This site was meant to be a Yarrilinks community plantout site in 2020, but unfortunately due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we weren’t able to have a community event that year. Luckily Wimmera CMA helped us out and we were able to get the site planted by their works crew.
Since then, the site has been managed by Rupanyup Landcare Group and a few rounds of infill plantings have taken place. Thanks to a few good growing years between 2020 - 2023, the trees have grown exceptionally well!
Yarrilinks is always happy to discuss potential activities with schools in our area (Warracknabeal, Minyip, Murtoa, Rupanyup). Contact Alicia to learn more.
