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A decade of Green Day

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Watershed Landcare’s Green Day celebrated it’s 10th birthday last week. This year’s event was the biggest ever, with over 800 kids from 16 schools attending the environmental expo.

Photo credit: Simone Kurtz courtesy of the Mudgee Guardian.

On September 16, year 5 and 6 students from local schools visited the Mudgee Showground to experience a day centred around the theme Go WoW or Go Make a Difference – War on Waste.

And we even had a celebrity special guest to help us celebrate. This year’s keynote speaker was Craig Reucassel, host of ABC TV’s Logie award winning series War on Waste. Craig’s humorous and entertaining presentation built on the topics explored in the TV series, such as food waste and packaging, and challenged the children to consider their impacts on the environment and consider alternatives.

Students also participated in a range of hands-on and educational workshops centered around the themes of reduce, reuse, recycle and waste impacts. Over 30 presenters from organisations including Oz Harvest, Clean Up Australia, NetWaste and the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW gave the children a broad appreciation of the scale of the waste issue, the associated problems, and importantly, how they can do their bit to tackle the problem.

“The feedback we have received from participating students and their parents has been very positive. There’s real enthusiasm from students, they get a buzz from the day and the take home messages stay with them for quite some time.” said Watershed Landcare Coordinator, Claudia Wythes.

Green Day would not be possible without the generous support of our sponsors. Watershed Landcare would like to thank Central Tablelands LLS, Mid-Western Regional Council, Moolarben Coal Operations and Peabody Energy for their contribution.

“A huge ammount of man hours, all voluntary, goes into organising Green Day. We would like to extend a huge thank you to all our speakers and volunteers for donating their time and making the event such a success.” said Ms Wythes.

“Also a special thanks to the volunteers from Mudgee High School who chaperoned the school groups to their workshops. Even with a record number of kids, everything ran very smoothly and no one got lost.” she continued.

This event is supported by Watershed Landcare and is a part of the NSW Government’s Local Landcare Coordinators Initiative, supported through the partnership of Local Land Services and Landcare NSW.

It’s a ten year celebration of Green Day

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Watershed Landcare has been running Green Day for local school children for 10 years! In this time over five and half thousand children have visited the Mudgee Showground to learn about environmental themes such as biodiversity, energy, waste and water.

On September 16, local schools will again bring their Year 5 and 6 students to experience a day centred around the theme Go WoW or Go Make a Difference War on Waste.

“Our theme is all about taking action. Workshops will provide students with key take-home messages.” said Vivien Howard, Chair of Watershed Landcare.

“We are fortunate to have over 20 speakers and workshop presenters to give children a broad appreciation of the scale of the waste issue, the associated problems and importantly how they can do their bit to tackle the problem.”

“We are excited to have secured Craig Reucassel as our keynote speaker this year, his second series of War on Waste currently airing on ABC TV is a timely backdrop to our event.” she continued.

ABC’s War on Waster presenter, Craig Reucassel, will be the keynote speaker at this year’s Green Day.

Green Day takes place on Thursday, 13 September 2018 at Mudgee Showground. This event is supported by Watershed Landcare, Mid-Western Regional Council, Central Tablelands Local Land Services, Moolarben Coal and Wilpinjong Coal and is a part of the NSW Government’s Local Landcare Coordinators Initiative, supported through the partnership of Local Land Services and Landcare NSW.

To find out more, contact Beth Greenfield on 0438 090 525 or email beth.greenfield@watershedlandcare.com.au.

Environmental expo a success

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The biggest event on Watershed Landcare’s calendar is over for another year.

The Green Day environmental expo for year 5 and 6 students from schools across our region was held at Mudgee Showground last Thursday.

“Everything ran very smoothly, which is no mean feat with coordinating nearly 600 kids from 13 schools and 20 workshops and presenters.” said Watershed Landcare Chairman, Craig Dennis.

The theme of this year’s Green Day was GoMAD – go make a difference – and the event coincided with Threatened Species Day and Outdoor Education Day.

“The students got plenty of fresh air and learned about biodiversity and what they can do in their home and school environments to help protect our native plants and animals.” said Mr Dennis.

Other workshops focused on the themes of reducing waste, water and energy consumption with presenters from Central Tablelands Local Land Services, Mid-Western Regional Council, Red Hill Environmental Education Centre, NetWaste, Niche Environment and Heritage, Barnson Pty Ltd, Royal Agricultural Society, Crave Natural and Rosby Sculptures in the Garden.

Students making horse sculptures at Green Day which will be exhibited at Rosby’s Sculptures in the Garden in October.

“The students were encouraged to take away lessons learned on the day by making pledges of what they can do at home or school to improve the environment and live more sustainably and to share the message with their friends and families.” said Mr Dennis.

Our keynote speaker, Ruben Meerman, delighted students and teachers alike with his spectacular science demonstrations. With the aid of liquid nitrogen, lasers and ordinary household items like food colouring and balloons, Ruben demonstrated simple scientific concepts like evaporation and condensation which helped to illustrate more complex ideas like water circulation in the atmosphere and how it affects climate.

“Green Day would not be possible without the generous support of our sponsors, because of them it continues to be a fully subsidised event and it means every child can attend.” said Mr Dennis.

“We would also like to thank all our volunteers for their hard work behind the scenes to make the event such a success; Mudgee High School students who acted as guides, the Peabody crew who prepared the kids lunches, our members and, last but not least, Viv Howard our Green Day Coordinator for bringing it all together.” he continued.

Watershed Landcare would like to acknowledge the support of Mid-Western Regional Council, Office of Environment and Heritage, Central Tablelands Local Land Services, Peabody Energy, Moolarben Coal, Red Hill Environmental Education Centre and Niche Environment and Heritage.

This event is supported by Watershed Landcare and is a part of the NSW Government’s Local Landcare Coordinators Initiative, supported through the partnership of Local Land Services and Landcare NSW.

Watershed makes waves

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Watershed Landcare is very pleased to announce that we have confirmed our keynote speaker for our 9th annual Green Day event.

We have been fortunate to secure the services of Ruben Meerman, a.k.a the Surfing Scientist!

Ruben is a passionate science educator, who travels extensively throughout Australia running exciting and engaging science sessions for primary and high school students. He has featured on popular television shows including Catalyst, Sleek Geeks, Studio 3, Sunrise, Roller Coaster, and was the first ever resident scientist on Playschool. He recently authored Big Fat Myths, which explores common myths around weight loss and dieting.

Ruben will run three, one hour sessions focusing on our key themes of water, waste, biodiversity and energy, and focus particularly on the science behind the problems and solutions for key environmental challenges, including plastic pollution.

The theme of this year’s event is GoMAD, an acronym for Go Make A Difference. In addition to our keynote speaker, we will have 20 workshop sessions being delivered by a number of local businesses and organisations.

Green Day would not be possible without the support of Mid-Western Regional Council, Office of Environment and Heritage, Central Tablelands Local Land Services, Peabody Energy, Red Hill Environmental Education Centre and Niche Environment and Heritage.

These important sponsors and supporters mean that Watershed is able to plan and execute Green Day with no costs to schools and students. All aspects of the day including transport and lunch are provided.

We need you? We still need a couple more volunteers for the day. Roles might include assisting with the Sculptures in the Garden Waste to Art activity, tracking the time of different sessions or setting up or packing down before or after the event.

If you’re available to help on Thursday 7 September, or would like any additional information, please contact Vivien Howard on 0427 446 245 or email info@watershedlandcare.com.au.

This event is supported by Watershed Landcare and is a part of the NSW Government’s Local Landcare Coordinators Initiative, supported through the partnership of Local Land Services and Landcare NSW.

Going mad for our Green Day

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Watershed Landcare is busy organising its 9th annual Green Day event, happening this year at Mudgee Showground on 7 September.

We’ve got record numbers for this year’s event with 625 students from 16 schools participating.

The theme of this year’s event is GoMAD, an acronym for Go Make A Difference, the theme aligns with a popular environmental education program undertaken by the NSW Department of Education.

“This year’s theme is all about taking action. Workshops will provide students with key take-home messages around the themes of biodiversity, energy, waste and water.” said Vivien Howard, Watershed Landcare’s Green Day Project Manager.

A total of 19 workshop presenters from a number of different local businesses and organisations will take part in this event. Students will learn about managing pest species, water quality, habitat protection and waste reduction.

“The workshop sessions are a vital part of the event, complimenting the keynote speaker and providing students with hands-on demonstrations from industry.” said Ms Howard.

“This year we have workshops from staff at Central Tablelands Local Land Services, Mid-Western Regional Council, Red Hill Environmental Education Centre, NetWaste, Niche Environment and Heritage, Barnson Pty Ltd, Royal Agricultural Society, Crave Natural and Rosby Sculptures in the Garden. We are very grateful for the participation of these businesses in our event.” she continued.

Keen to help out? We are always in need of volunteers at Green Day, this year we have a particular need for volunteers to help with the Waste to Art activity being run by Kay Norton-Knight of Rosby Sculptures in the Garden.

If you’re available to help, or would like any additional information about the event, please contact Vivien Howard on 0488 224 025 or email info@watershedlandcare.com.au.

This event is supported by Watershed Landcare and is a part of the NSW Government’s Local Landcare Coordinators Initiative, supported through the partnership of Local Land Services and Landcare NSW.