Whanganui business supports trees for school

St Johns Hill School pupils Wairangi Potaka-Osborne 6, Sophie Bromley 8, and Grace Eastabrook 8, were replanting one of the garden beds at their school. Photo/Stuart Munro

There will be many tall trees at St Johns Hill School in the future and current pupils will have the satisfaction of knowing they planted them.

Whanganui business owners Bryce Robb and Mary Cameron of Beaver Tree Services have donated $1000 to purchase 417 trees from the Whanganui Prison nursery to be planted at the school.

Robb said the donation was about celebrating Arbour Day and wanting to make a "growing gift" to the school.

"We know the children here will tend the trees and the prison nursery have given us a great deal so every child got to plant their own tree.

"Children in New Zealand always got to plant trees on Arbour Day and we want to bring back the tradition and donate trees to schools every year."

The planting coincides with the renewal of St Johns Hill's status as a green-gold Enviroschool.

Enviroschools was established with the aim to foster a generation of people who instinctively think and act sustainably.

The school celebrated last Friday with guests from Whanganui District and Horizons Regional councils as well as Department of Conservation staff who stayed on to help with the plantings after morning tea.

The celebration coincided with the Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre's Litter Free Lunch Day and the school has a goal for "100 per cent rubbish free lunch boxes" with the use of reusable wrap and containers.

New Zealand's first Arbour Day planting was on July 3, 1890 at Greytown in the Wairarapa.

The official date for Arbour Day is now June 5 and most New Zealand cities can trace their largest trees back to early Arbour Day plantings.