Crowdfunding push launched for 1500-plant Watson microforest
Canberra times - Jasper Lindell - NOVEMBER 29 2020 - 5:01AM
Driven by some healthy suburb rivalry and armed with a plan that would absorb carbon and provide a shady natural habitat, Liz Adcock and Purdie Bowden want to take climate adaptation and community building efforts to an urban reserve.
The pair has launched a crowd-funding effort to raise the $20,000 needed to design and plant a microforest of 1500 native plants at Watson's Wade Street park.
"There's been just a rush of support. It's been fabulous. Everywhere you go, people are embracing it," Ms Bowden said.
The project, which is inspired by the Downer microforest pilot, where trees were planted in spring after a crowdfunding effort raised more than $20,000 last year, is focused on bringing community members together, Ms Bowden said.
"It's kind of based on this notion that there is a lot of resources in community and we can draw on those resources for projects like this," she said.
"Ideally, we have a bit of government support - government doesn't get in the way, they make a streamlined process for us in terms of approvals and some additional grant funding is very useful to get these projects over the line and really make them worthwhile.
While the goal was to plant a microforest next year - which could double as a forest classroom for the nearby primary school and offer a valuable parcel of land for children to play in a natural environment - the project was not just a means to an end, Ms Bowden said.
"With COVID and all the global issues we face, people feel increasingly isolated, increasingly helpless and unable to take action and solve any issues on their own. And this is about empowering people and bringing people together," she said.
Ms Bowden said COVID-19 had meant more people were spending more time in their own suburbs every day, which had changed how people saw their local environment.
"Especially during lockdown you could see entire families out daily. Mums and dads together with their kids, not just one parent," she said.
"And so I think once you start doing that, you see a lot more of value in putting effort, time and resources into enhancing your local space, because it means more to you."