A new project by the Marion Living Smarties

The idea came out of a conversation among the group earlier this year. Several of us had lost local trees that we loved. Trees in neighbours’ yards or on our walk to school. We started sharing the small reasons particular trees were meaningful to us and the sadness of their loss. There was also a feeling of regret that we hadn’t told the tree’s owners that we loved their tree. We wondered if this would have made a difference.
We also wanted to do something positive. There is a lot of anger, sadness and frustration around the loss of our urban trees. Perhaps by sharing positive stories, we could start to flip this? From this, the Love Our Local Trees project was quickly sketched out. A local campaign asking people to share their favourite trees (and the reasons why they love them) within the Cities of Marion and Holdfast Bay. Plus, the option to drop a little thankyou note in the letterbox of people who have trees in their yards that are important to you.

And now we have so many beautiful stories to share. Each one is personal and powerful.
Have a read of some of them below.

Love Our Local Trees will culminate in a Nature Festival Tree Celebration event on Saturday, 14 October 2023 with the Cities of Marion and Holdfast Bay. We will be sharing the stories received, hearing from experts, having fun with free family activities, and coming together around our love for local trees.

Four Ways You Can Help:

1. Nominate trees within the Cities of Holdfast Bay and Marion by 31 August. Simply fill in our short survey to share your favourite tree (or 2 or 3) – click HERE

2. Ask family or friends in the area to do the same (we’ve found that reaching out personally is the best way to get people to join in) or share our recent post on your socials and tag us (click HERE). ~~ Chatting with friends, neighbours and others within the local community about the trees we love has been a really lovely part of this project so far. Most people are quick to tell you about special trees in their local area, and it’s nice to see lots of people recognising the important roles these trees play in our suburbs.

3. Come along to our Nature Festival Love Our Local Trees Celebration event (Sat 14 October, 11 am – 2 pm) for some free family fun and lots of great tree conversations. Check the Nature Festival program (coming soon) for more details.

4. Get active in speaking up for our trees. Adelaide is losing its significant, regulated and mature trees at an alarming rate. People across Adelaide are coming together to speak up for our trees. Join a broad movement pushing for changes to the regulations that govern how we protect our trees. Read reports, find out more and sign up for tree campaign updates from Conservation Council SA at www.conservationsa.org.au/trees.

About us

Love Our Local Trees is a volunteer community project by the Marion Living Smarties, local residents who care about our environment, with support from Sustainable Communities SA.

Contact us via livingsmartiesm@gmail.com

Thank you to Sustainable Communities SA for hosting our webpage and for sharing this project. We also appreciate the willingness of staff from the Cities of Holdfast Bay and Marion to support Love Our Local Trees and to get behind the Nature Festival event.