January 1

Published by Panetary Health Initiative on

Today we’re launching A Year in a Day!

To respond to the urgency of the need to restore planetary health, the Blue Mountains Planetary Health Pluriversity is initiating a Citizen Science Project in 2022 called ‘A Year In a Day’.

We want to explore whether the small actions of individuals can have an impact if we all work together – and what those impacts might be. We’re starting from the premise that every organisation, every business, every government and every community is made up of individuals, and change has to start somewhere! We can all help one another mobilise to restore planetary health and share the many different ways it’s possible do this. By sharing and collaborating, we’ll also learn new ways to create stronger communities, new ways to create livelihoods that restore planetary health, and new ways to protect, restore and regenerate the natural systems of which we are a part, and on which the health of all life depends.

Each day someone from the Planetary Health Initiative will be taking one NEW action that we wouldn’t ordinarily take, and blogging about it. We’ll also be suggesting ways that Council can support you to take an action.

We’d love you to join us. If, in one day, we can reach 365 of us taking a NEW action to restore planetary health, we will achieve the action of a whole year in one day.

Imagine if we began to do this every day of the year …. we could rapidly create a much better present and an even better future! We really would be restoring planetary health.

While you may not be able to do something every day, you can help us spread the word so that as many people as possible can contribute.

It doesn’t have to be the same 365 people every day but it does have to be a NEW action that you wouldn’t ordinarily do … and it has to be recorded on the day you took that action.

JANUARY 1 – Removing Broom Seed at the Campbell Rhododendron Gardens, Blackheath

One of the best ways to introduce a new action and to change the patterns of our lives, is to stack a new action onto an old one … an action that we do automatically and that is almost second nature.

Every day I take Charlie for a walk at the Campbell Rhododendron Gardens in Blackheath, which were severely damaged by the fires two years ago. I’ve been enjoying the regeneration over the past two years but have observed that, since the fires, clumps of Scotch Broom have regenerated at the edge of the gardens. They’ve now formed seed pods that are about to be released into the beautiful regenerating bushland that gives me so much pleasure each day. One plant can produce up to 18,000 seeds per year and these survive in the soil for 20 or more years – ready to germinate when a fire or some other destruction wipes out other plants! This means they can take over bushland really quickly, swamping native species. They’re toxic and highly flammable, and grow in such thick clumps that they can impede the movement of both wildlife and firefighters in the event of another fire.

So, today, to launch #AYearInADay, I decided to take my secateurs with me and do something about it on my walk. It only took half an hour but I can’t even begin to describe how thrilled I feel that I’ve done one small thing to protect the gardens I love so much.

Here’s a short video of Day 1:

Broom is a Weed of National Significance under the NSW Biosecurity Act 2015 and particularly after the Fires it is now becoming a major threat to us all.

To learn more about it you can go to the Broom Management Manual here

To learn more about the Bradley Method of Bush Regeneration check out our recent video here:

SHARE YOUR ACTIONS TO A YEAR IN A DAY

We’d love you to take a NEW action and share it with us here on our blog or on our social media

Please use the hashtags #yearinaday #wearenature #generationrestoration so we can keep track of what you post.

As part of our Citizen Science project we’ll record and list everyone’s actions each day. Can you help us reach 365 Actions in one day?

If you’d like to work with other people keen to protect and restore the health of our bushland :

WHY NOT JOIN A LOCAL BUSHCARE GROUP

In 2022, Blue Mountains City Council’s Bushcare will be celebrating 30 years of working to restore planetary health. Council’s Bushcarers have the most extraordinary wealth of experience to share and there are over 60 Bushcare groups across the Blue Mountains, ranging from Lapstone in the Lower Blue Mountains to Mount Victoria in the upper Blue Mountains and across to the basalt-topped Mount Wilson. You can find out more about joining a Bushcare group here

You can also get involved in the Planetary Health Initiative’s Regen Picnics at the old Katoomba Golf Course as we work to regenerate the bushland there.

Email planetaryhealth@bmcc.nsw.gov.au if you’d like to get involved.


5 Comments

Sunflower · 02/01/2022 at 3:02 pm

I just watched a very interesting programme on ABC this morning regarding consumerism and other ways to live with less stuff. “Too Much Stuff” via Compass is very well presented, with lots of practical information. Might be of interest to some people. Available via this link: https://iview.abc.net.au/video/RN2011H020S00

melissachambers · 01/01/2022 at 11:06 pm

Today I planted seeds in my home garden and food forest including pumpkin, watermelon, rock melon, lab lab, cowpea, chickpea, beans, buckwheat, scarlet runner beans, beetroot, basil, spinach, loofah, amaranth and strawberry plants.

Carlab · 01/01/2022 at 10:31 pm

Today I watered the herbs I’ve planted as a bee terrace – the plan is to add more flowers and a wall with nesting sites for native bees 😊 #yearinaday #wearenature #generationrestoration

    Lis Bastian · 01/01/2022 at 10:34 pm

    That sounds just sooooo bee-autiful!

Oscar the grouch · 01/01/2022 at 8:09 pm

Today my partner and I made 2 steps towards restoring planetary health, they were small, but they were easy. Firstly, we seperated all the plastic bags we had under the sink, and collected the ones we could take back to dedicated recycling stations, next time we’re at Woolworths we can recycle them properly! We have also started depositing old coffee grounds on a dead bit of garden bed which we have, in the future well also be able to put some food scraps on top to make a small compost pile! Small actions, but it’s 2 less things that will be going into landfill from now on 🙂

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