Sydney canopy is 172,000 native trees richer – with more to come

This Schools Tree Day and National Tree Day we’re celebrating 200 schools planted and 172,000 native trees added to Sydney canopy. Photo credit Tom Yau.

A dynamic partnership to increase Sydney’s canopy cover, tackling urban heat and habitat loss, is celebrating significant milestones this Schools Tree Day and National Tree Day.

Given the success of its first Cooling the Schools program in 2020-2022, engaging students to plant native species in their schoolyards, Greening Australia has been supported by the NSW Government to deliver the program to even more schools, as well as the new Rewilding Sydney program which focuses on larger scale plantings with private and public landholders for habitat restoration.

Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure (DPHI) Executive Director, Resilience and Sustainability, Steve Hartley said:

“The NSW Government is proud to support the work of Greening Australia through its Cooling the Schools and Rewilding Sydney programs.

“National Tree Day is a great opportunity to come together and get planting, and it is heartening to see so many school students participating in Schools Tree Day.”

The numbers to date

• 200 schools with plantings in the Sydney area so far
• 34,800+ native trees added to schoolyards so far
• 137,500+ native trees outside school gates, including 73,800+ Rewilding Sydney trees so far
• 172,000+ native trees added to Sydney canopy in partnership between Greening Australia and NSW Government.

Cooling the Schools sessions also include a cultural education component delivered by Greening Australia and Deadly Ed cultural educators. Photo credit Tim Clark.

Celebrating over 200 schools getting trees

Today, Schools Tree Day (Friday 26 July), marks 200 schools in the Sydney area that have now received a planting session through Cooling the Schools. Collectively, students have gotten their hands dirty establishing over 34,800 native trees in their schoolyards to tackle urban heat and biodiversity loss.

Greening Australia’s Nicola Masters, who leads the Cooling the Schools program, said:

“As the impacts of a changing climate on nature and on our communities become increasingly obvious, many young people are anxious about the future.

“At every school we want to give students a chance to get dirty hands and feel their own agency as part of a global solution by planting to create shelter, natural cooling and habitat in their own schoolyards.”

How to celebrate 172,000 trees? Plant more!

This National Tree Day (Sunday 28 July) the partnership is also celebrating 137,500 trees added to parks, reserves, public spaces and private landholdings since 2020, through community events and more recently through professional Rewilding Sydney installations.

Together with the trees in schools, that makes over 172,000 native trees added to Sydney’s canopy cover by the collaboration between Greening Australia and the NSW Government.

How are they celebrating? By planting more trees! Another thousand will be added to the total at a National Tree Day planting event with Campbelltown Council at Milton Park in Macquarie Fields.

Greening Australia and Campbelltown Council collaborated to plant trees for National Tree Day at Milton Park in 2022 and 2023, and will again this year. Photo credit Toby Peet.

Greening Australia’s Operations Manager in NSW, Chris Macris, said:

“It’s an impressive number, given how contested space in a city like Sydney can be, which just highlights how much potential there is for integrating more nature into our cities. But the number isn’t as important as the impact those trees represent – creating greater access to nature for people’s wellbeing, tackling urban heat with shading canopy, and supporting biodiversity with a better-connected network of biodiverse, green corridors.”

And there’s more to come. Eyes firmly on the prize, by the end of 2025, Greening Australia aims to have planted 15,000 more trees with 100 additional schools through Cooling the Schools and another 100,000 native trees across the city’s footprint through Rewilding Sydney.

Just getting started – more trees are planned to increase Sydney canopy by the end of 2025. Photo credit Toby Peet.

Sydney schools who want to participate in Cooling the Schools can register interest here.

Sydney landholders who want to discuss a planting through Rewilding Sydney can register interest here.

Cooling the Schools and Rewilding Sydney are proudly funded by the NSW Government as part of the Greening our City program.
 

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