Wagga Wagga City Council's Environment team is celebrating this week after winning a Local Government NSW 'Excellence in the Environment' award for their One Tree for Me campaign.
The award was in the Communication, Education and Empowerment category of the Excellence in the Environment Awards, which celebrate the diversity of sustainability action being undertaken by NSW councils across 13 award categories.
Council's Strategic Sustainability Advisor Carly Hood was thrilled to accept the award on behalf of the team at a ceremony in Sydney.
"Our One Tree for Me campaign aims to see 65,000 native seedlings planted throughout our local area over a six-year period – roughly one tree for every resident," Ms Hood said.
"It's essentially quite a simple concept, but it has great community reach and impact, and direct environmental benefits.
"It addresses our Corporate Net Zero 2040 Strategy, our Biodiversity Strategy: Maldhangilanha 2020-2030 and our Urban Cooling Strategy 2022 – 2052 all at once and allows people in our community to take direct action in their own backyards."
One Tree for Me has now finished its second year, with more than 22,978 seedlings planted to increase native vegetation and biodiversity in our community.
This has been achieved through a mix of activities including free seedling giveaways to residents, community tree planting activities on community land, and supporting schools through Planet Ark's Schools Tree Day campaign.
Environmental Education Officer Christina Reid said it was wonderful to see the campaign receive acknowledgement from within the sector.
"It's a really good feeling to come to work every morning when you're involved in such good projects that are making a difference to your local environment and community, and you're getting recognition for that work," Ms Reid said.
"One Tree for Me has been so well embraced by our local community. We have big crowds who turn out for the giveaways; we're often run off our feet, particularly when we head out to the suburbs and rural villages.
"Everyone is really keen for the seedlings, and want to know where to plant them, how to care for them, where can they get more, and when are we doing the next giveaway.
"We're already in the planning stages for 2023. We give out the seedlings in the cooler months because that's the best time to plant them, so we'll be kicking off again from June."
