National Tree Day

National Tree Day, co-ordinated by Planet Ark and proudly sponsored by Toyota, is Australia's biggest community tree-planting event and a day for all Australians to help out by planting native trees and shrubs at a Tree Day site in their local area. Co-founded by Olivia Newton-John and Jon Dee in 1996, to date more than 2 million volunteers have planted over 13 million native trees and shrubs!

National Tree Day is usually held on the last Sunday of July, with Schools Tree Day taking place on the Friday before. This year, however, National Tree Day will fall a week later in order not to clash with NSW school holidays. In 2008 over 220,000 school children dug deep to improve their natural surroundings. Tree Day shows children how easy and fun it is to help our environment.

Tree planting makes a positive difference to our environment, and provides an opportunity for schools, community groups and local residents to come together under the umbrella of one event. Planting local native trees, shrubs and ground covers helps to provide food and shelter for Australia's wildlife, increasing native biodiversity and combating the habitat loss that threatens much of our wildlife.

This year Schools Tree Day falls on Friday, 31 July 2009, with National Tree Day on Sunday, 2 August 2009. There are also 12 additional planting dates spread throughout the year.