The year 9 class of Hastings Christian School have been informed to do a “Passion Project” about something to improve our city. A group of these students and I have a  proposal which is to plant more trees to help our city. 

We have researched the benefits of this for our community and wildlife. One of the many ways this helps is the reduction of pollution, which is everywhere. This is because of stormwater runoff, which also causes erosion. Of course, pollution happens in many other ways. We have a creek near the border of our school property, which we recently checked it’s status. It’s not doing so well, instead, it’s quite poorly in a state of pollution. The grey murky water is not a great sight to see. Trees help with this. They improve the water’s quality by slowing rain as it falls, and helps it soak up into the soil nearby. In some cases, soil eroded into our waterways; it helps with that too. Trees also benefit our wildlife, they provide shelter and food. Some trees are also essential for some animals to live. Therefore trees can help preserve some species, especially our native birds. 

We are hoping that you could help us out by moving forward with this idea of planting more trees in certain areas  in Hawke’s Bay. If so, please let us know any ideal places we would be able to do so. If it is also possible, it would really help if you could donate a sample of trees towards this idea.