Three new groups learning tree nursery skills

With Local Service suspended due to COVID-19, we have even more students than usual milling about in our tree nursery. A Middle school group works with Mr Meehan on Wednesday; a Grade 9-10 group with Mr Daniels and Ms Haley on Thursday; and a Grade 11 group with Mr Tomlin on Friday. Meanwhile, a URRP GC group also meets at lunchtime on Friday, literally getting their hands dirty. As if that weren't enough, a Magic Mulch group meets on Thursday afternoon, taking invaluable compost to trees around the campus that started life in the nursery. The new URRP groups are following a basic tree nursery course that introduces them to the theory and practice of how to:

1. germinate seeds
2. 'pot up' seedlings
3. grow new trees (clones) from cuttings
4. grow new trees by means of air layering ('marcottage')
5. plant a tree

It's an exciting time — especially with NParks keen to involve us in their One Million Trees movement — and we look forward to a new batch of students coming through the nursery in Season 2 (Nov-Jan). The late Nobel Peace Prize winner Waangari Maathai once said, “Until you dig a hole, you plant a tree, you water it and make it survive, you haven’t done a thing. You are just talking.” Keep digging!

Collaboration with NParks: One Million Trees

We are delighted to be part of a collaboration with NParks, supporting the One Million Trees movement. This is a nationwide effort to plant a million trees over the next 10 years and we hope that thousands of those trees will be raised in our new GreenHeart nursery.

UWCSEA Rainforest Restoration Project (URRP) staff met with NParks staff on 24 September. We have already received seeds from NParks and plans are afoot to plant URRP-raised saplings in parts of the Southern Ridges, such as Kent Ridge Park and the Rail Corridor. URRP staff will also visit theNParks nursery at Pasir Panjang during the October half-term break.

Neat Nursery

In recent weeks, Andy Tan and his landscaping team, together with Facilities staff and outside contractors, have done an impressive job of reorganising the Dover nursery. Rotting wood and broken pots have been disposed of, replaced by lightweight metal tables with mesh tops and relaid artificial turf. Even our Shade House has had a makeover.

The Rainforest Restoration Project should soon be moving its base to the space near the new Ecology Centre. As we do so, we should dispose of our much-loved but dilapidated cupboards. As ever, we should ensure all our species are labelled and bring our inventory up to date. A next step may be to seek new stock from NParks while also using cuttings to propagate some indigenous species.

COVID-19 has interrupted our meetings with NParks partners, but we are exploring the possibility of being assigned a section of the Rail Corridor for reforestation, from seedling collection, through nursery care, planting and subsequent monitoring of tree growth.