4000 Trees project funded

Minister for Local Government and Community Services, and Parks and Wildlife, Bess Price has provided the MacDonnell Regional Council with a $100,000 grant for their 4000 Trees project.

The 4000 Trees project will establish about 300 trees and shrubs in each of the MacDonnell Regional Council’s 13 remote communities over the next two years.

The trees and shrubs will provide long term benefits for the communities and the future of its residents by providing privacy, shade, wind breaks and dust suppression as well as screening off cultural areas from the wider community at some of the locations.

Support coming from the Minister for Local Government and Community Services, and Parks and Wildlife revives the opportunities of the MacDonnell Regional Council’s project following the Federal government’s snub of Northern Territory local governments in its Round 2 grants under its National Landcare Program’s 20 Million Trees project.

In the Federal government’s recent National Landcare Program’s 20 Million Trees project, grants totalling $5 million were distributed nationally without any money being allocated to assist local governments in the Northern Territory.

Minister Price’s assistance guarantees the project’s survival by providing $100,000 for the two year program and will be matched by an equal contribution toward the project from the MacDonnell Regional Council.

MacDonnell Regional Council is now able to begin sourcing and planting around 150 pot sized seedlings per year for each of its 13 remote Indigenous communities.

MacDonnell Regional Council communities include: Amoonguna, Areyonga, Docker River, Finke, Haasts Bluff, Hermannsburg, Imanpa, Kintore, Mount Liebig, Papunya, Santa Teresa, Titjikala and Wallace Rockhole.

The MacDonnell Regional Council’s contribution toward the project is a mix of budgeted and in-kind support aimed at maximising the success of the project by recognising both its initial labour and resource contribution as well as the ongoing nurturing that is critical to establish plants in arid environments.

The project will engage local Civil Works teams in each of MacDonnell Regional Council’s communities to provide the ongoing care of the plantings and will look to collaborate with the Community Development Program (CDP) on each community.

MacDonnell Regional Council has long-established service level guidelines that underpin the development of parks, open spaces, sporting facilities and cemeteries in its communities.

In total the project will plant about 150 trees and 150 under-storey plants (shrubs) in each of the MacDonnell Regional Council’s 13 communities over a two year period.

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