Children learn to save trees
16 September 2021
The Centre for Conservation Education celebrated National Arbor Week 2021 by taking school groups to the Arderne Gardens in Claremont.
The park is a provincial heritage site and contains more than 400 trees.
Centre staff began the tour with ‘Dos and Don’ts’ signage for visitors and introduced the Gardens specifically: their history; their purpose as a place for recreation; as well as how people should behave in public spaces.
Learners went for a walk through the Gardens where they identified specific Champion Trees that are protected because of their remarkable size, age, and value. Learners participated in a variety of activities and identified and classified the diverse species living in the Gardens.
Anton Fortuin, Principal of the Centre for Conservation Education, said the visits ended with a talk about Arbor Week, the uses of trees, and why we should plant more trees.
During June, the centre was involved with the distribution of 200 trees to needy schools within the Metropole South Education District. The trees were donated by the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries with the specific aim of greening school grounds.
The schools who received the trees were extremely grateful and shared photographs of the tree-planting with the centre.
Some of the schools planted trees to commemorate those who had lost their lives during Covid-19 or to honour teachers for the many challenges they have faced over the last year in teaching under extremely difficult conditions.
One of the conditions for the donation was that the learners should be made aware of the importance of trees in our environment and the reason for the tree-planting.
