Take a mental health break, plant 10,000 trees

Wednesday, 10 July 2019

Sustainable Coastlines co-founder Sam Judd.

Planting 10,000 trees to repair a wetland and clean a stream has been an elixir for the wellbeing of hundreds of mud covered volunteers.

Sloshing in the mire, a cool breeze blowing, shoes and gumboots sodden - volunteers are smiling and happy to be out on a sunny winter's day.

The team hard at work transforming the stream bank.

The link between mental wellbeing and nature is becoming more established said Sustainable Coastlines co-founder Sam Judd and a restoration project near Cambridge is just what the doctor ordered.

'There is a whole series of research I'm interested in and it's showing that your mental health improves, your physical health clearly improves because you're out there doing some work,' Judd said. 'The physical benefits are clear but, actually, the wellbeing and mental health benefits are super signifcant.'

Sam Bryant and daughter Bowie, 3, loving the time spent together planting trees for a good cause.

* Restoring the city's waterways with native trees

* Dr Tom: Why it's time to get moving

* Auckland's most polluted stream has had six tonnes of rubbish removed**

In 2018, a Mental Health Foundation survey found 95 per cent of people who responded felt better after spending time in nature. Nature is having such a significant impact that doctors in Scotland are prescribing nature as an antidote to illness.

APL's organisational development and sustainability general manager Mikayla Plaw, 29.

Environmental and social impacts are numerous, Judd said. Two school groups helped with the three days of planting next to the tributary of the Karapiro Stream, hundreds of people volunteered including community corrections and corporate workers and their families.

'There are a whole bunch of environmental benefits but I think it's really about connecting humans to nature,' Judd said.

Putting in the hard yards has its benefits.

Hamilton resident Dan Marshall put in a solid day's work.

'If you can change people's outlook by giving them some hope and actually getting them out there doing something at scale where you are putting 10,000-plus trees and plants into an area in three days then people start to go, you know what, there is actually a way to get out of this mess and it's using your hands.'

The collaboration has allowed dairy and dry stock farmer Paul Westlake to lighten his load.

'What would take me 10 years to do with a huge investment, they've been able to do in one year,' Westlake said.

Waikato Regional Council have been on board with erosion control, Ngāti Hauā Mahi Trust have provided the trees, and key sponsor APL's staff and their families have provided hours of sweat.

Westlake bought the 69ha farm, on the outskirts of Cambridge, three years ago with the intention of fencing off the stream and restoring the wetland.

Wet and unproductive, the three hectare gully is now retired. It was no good for the cows and no good for the environment and not much of a financial loss, he said.

'It's really satisfying and we'd like to take it further but it's going to be a slower process. The budget is not unlimited.'

Restoration projects are an annual event, said APL's organisational development and sustainability general manager and Mikayla Plaw, 29.

On top of that, APL is moving out of Hamilton to Hautapu and in the process, putting sustainability into its new state-of-the-art building.

'I think there has been a real shift in society but in our company as well,' Plaw said. 'Sustainability is at the forefront of most of our decisions.

'We are working really hard internally but externally with initiatives like this out in the community. We know that planting is absolutely the best thing we can be doing for our environment. If we can contribute to that and get 10,000 trees in the ground a year, that's fantastic.'