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2025 Season so far

The 2025 Trees for Survival planting season is well underway with 66,398 native plants in the ground - and counting! Thanks to the incredible efforts of 2,920 students, who have rolled up their sleeves across 74 planting days since May, we’re heading towards our biggest tally to date. Our top six species planted so far this season are: Ti Kōuka (15,875), Karamū (14,292), Mānuka (10,701), Harakeke / Flax (10,540), Cyperus (4,074), Kānuka (3,992). That’s more than just numbers — it’s r...

The Big Picture

Planting 20 metres of stream may seem like a small step in the grand scheme of restoration, but the impact truly stretches far beyond the borders of our Trees for Survival planting site! By planting native trees, shrubs and sedges, our schools play a vital role in supporting other local restoration and conservation initiatives. Recently students  in the Waikato had the opportunity to work alongside staff from the Department of Conservation and Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari. This connecti...

Birds, Bees and Butterflies

Trees for Survival monitor every tree grown and planted by the schools in the programme, however it is not just the successful growth of these plants that are being measured. Trees for Survival are collaborating with Birds NZ on a pilot project to monitor changes in bird numbers and species at several Trees for Survival sites.  With a decline in habitat around the world, it is exciting to see schools engaged in the Trees for Survival programme, restoring native forest and improving outcomes...

Adventure

Not only are planting days the highlight of the Trees for Survival growing calendar, they are also an amazing opportunity for students to explore beyond their everyday environment – in essence an adventure!  For some students, a day at a working farm with all the sights, sounds and smells is new. For others, getting dirty, finding worms and exploring the world beneath their feet is a thrill. For many, the outing will introduce them to people, jobs and ideas around environmental restoratio...

Partner Badges

Trees for Survival love partners to share and promote their relationship and have developed new Web badges for use by partners on their websites. These have been developed in line with existing e-badges which are available to schools running the Trees for Survival programme.  A range has been developed, with badges available for principal partners, corporate partners, supporters and school partners. The Trees for Survival team will be in touch to share these with partners and look forward t...

Restoration in Progress

Each Trees for Survival planting site is visited for 2 years after planting for facilitators to monitor plant growth. Typically the first year involves the plants adapting to life after being planted and outside the shadehouse, tolerating the extremes the weather may bring like flood and drought, competing for light from fast growing grass or weeds and surviving any grazing pests like rabbits and pukeko.  Restoration plant species are hardy for a reason and we are often surprised and deligh...

Shadehouse Checks

The role of the Trees for Survival Facilitator includes seasonal tasks for each of the schools they oversee in the programme.   With 229 schools currently growing their native plants, the 22 Trees for Survival Facilitators across the regions are busy undertaking their start of year plant counts and Shadehouse checks.  After the hot summer this will include counting all of the plants, noting any plant losses and how these could have been prevented, checking for pests and diseases, ...

Busy Growing

While students head on holiday for 6 weeks over the summer, schools are closed and teachers relax, the Trees for Survival shade houses are at their most active!  Weather conditions are perfect for summer plant growth and as facilitators start doing the rounds of each of their schools in January and February, TfS are expecting to be able to share more photos of amazing summer plant growth.  Karamu and Manuka in particular can put on a lot of growth over the summer and some plants will n...

We’re heading south

With ongoing support from our corporate partners, Trees for Survival have been busily planning a huge 2026 season with the move to establish new school clusters in 3 regions in the South Island!  Plans are well underway to work with local nurseries and providers in the Tasman district, South Canterbury and Southland to take the TfS programme to schools and communities in new areas. A dedicated South Island team leader will help coordinate and work with South Island providers and partners.&n...

Summer Ready

Pre summer checks…TfS facilitators are busily visiting each of their schools before the end of Term 4. These pre summer visits include checking that irrigation timer settings are correct to keep seedlings suitably watered over the summer holiday. To prevent plants becoming too tall and spindly and blocking water flow, TfS facilitators will also trim manuka, kanuka, karamu and sedges.  It is preferable that plants are sturdy and strong when planted, so trimming will help promote lateral gr...

Seed Collection

Seed collection…hot on the heels of the 2024 planting season, the TfS Propagation Coordinator is already looking at the coordination of seed collection for the 2025 season. Each TfS facilitator is tasked with providing an indication of the planting site and plant species each of their schools may require for the 2025 season. This then informs the plant species and amount of seed required in each region with ‘shopping lists’ of the required eco sourced seed going out to specialist collector...

2024 Planting season

It has been a huge 2024 planting season for TfS!  With reports in from the 213 schools that have grown and planted this year, Trees for Survival are thrilled to announce that 2024 planting days involved 7,212 students and 2,948 teachers, parents and partners who together planted 164,005 native plants!...

Riparian edge impacts

Planting sites for the 2024 season included 16,621 linear meters of riparian edge, where vegetation will help to cool water, provide habitat and reduce the movement of silt and nutrients into our waterways.   Landowners are required to fence their waterways with some putting in fences after the planting day to allow for ease of access for students.  Sedges and grasses make up approx. 31% of the plants grown and planted by TfS schools this season and are essential to the health and...

Teacher Feedback

As a school based programme, having the enthusiasm of teachers to run and support the TfS programme in the school and make the most of the learning opportunities around growing, planting, ecology, biology and restoration is essential. Facilitators liaise with a lead teacher in each school who then coordinate the potting on and planting day activities.  Success for the teachers includes the satisfaction of the health and number of the plants being grown, the pleasure of having their students...

Seedling Delivery

The 2024 TfS seedling delivery is the result of a lot of planning. 228 TfS schools are each set to receive their share of the approx. 230,000 native plant seedlings and 4,560 bags of 40 litre potting mix over the next few weeks! While some regions have already had their supplies delivered, other supplies are being sorted and packed up delivery this week. Boxes of plants and crates of potting mix are dispatched by courier and schools are anticipating their arrival so they can keep these seedlings...

Seedlings

While the 2024 Trees for Survival planting season is still underway, behind the scenes their Propagation Coordinator is busy liaising with Nga Rakau and Te Whangai Nurseries and Tairāwhiti Campus at EIT.  Seed that was carefully collected, collated, cleaned and sorted in December 2023 has been germinated, with seedlings now busy growing. Many seeds from NZ native plants require a period of cold stratification before germination will occur. Having these seeds germinated and grown at nurseri...

Outdoor experience

TfS began in Auckland with the yearly Planting Day being an opportunity for a rural excursion that offered a farm visit and experience outside of the norm for many central city schools. While a rural excursion and tree planting outside of school is still a great learning experience and the highlight of the TfS calendar, TfS has now grown into other regions where many schools and students are very familiar with rural life. Regardless of familiarity with a farm and how to use a spade, TfS planting...

Whangārei

TfS are excited to see their Northland cluster of schools grow with Kamo Intermediate, Portland School and Maunu School experiencing their first TfS planting days this season and Whau Valley school  with their new shadehouse ready to receive their first delivery of seedlings in September.  With 5 schools in Whangārei, TfS have established a dedicated local Facilitator to oversee the programme in this area.  Kate Davies will support the smooth running of the programme,  organ...

Matariki 2024

Following a successful Matariki event in 2023,  on 28th June Trees for Survival in partnership with Gallagher Insurance and Raapua Collective and other partners, hosted a Matariki celebration for the community at  Maungatautari.   It was a stunning morning for a dawn ceremony at Karapiro where local tamariki took to the awa, carrying a flame which then lit fires that offered food to the stars.  The group acknowledged those that had passed and embraced the energy of the d...

Āwhitu Planting

Trees for Survival love to celebrate the inspiring stories of many of their landowners. The Harris family recently hosted the Āwhitu School, Waiuku School and Sandspit Road School planting days and have hosted TfS planting in previous years.  Their Waiuku property lies at the confluence of two streams flowing into the Manukau harbour and as part of the Āwhitu Peninsula Landscape group they are also planting thousands of native plants at their property this season contributing to the nativ...

Facilitator resources

To help enable the smooth running of planting days, our facilitators are well resourced with a myriad of items.  From meeting and greeting landowners, partners and schools groups, giving health and safety briefings and demonstrating to the group how to plant; our facilitators have the knowledge and resources to get planting day underway. Facilitators each provide spades for the schools use, together with a Makita battery operated auger to help dig holes if the conditions are right,  bu...

Big Picture Planting

We know that an individual can make a difference -  individual trees can provide shade and habitat, an individual can plant hundreds of trees, and a school thousands of trees over many years.  What Trees for Survival is increasingly enjoying is seeing how groups of landowners are supporting several schools to plant, not a single site but several sites, protecting and enhancing kilometres of watercourse and creating ecological corridors on neighbouring land. In the Muriwai Valley in Auc...

Native Tree donation appeal starting 27 May

Trees for Survival Charitable Trust is calling on New Zealanders to play their part in helping to ‘reforest Aotearoa’ by donating a native tree to their nationwide school programme.The charity’s inaugural ‘Donate a Native Tree’ appeal kicks off on 27 May and will run until 31 May 2024, aiming to raise as much as possible to help them bring the programme to the schools on their waiting list.National Manager Phil Lyons said people can decide to donate a tree for $7, give a monetary donat...

#1 Planter

Since our partnership with Trees that Count began in 2022, Trees for Survival has become their #1 all time planter.Our school programme has planted 75,000 native plants with Trees that Count over the past three years - and counting! Our environmental education programme is supporting schools and communities to restore our environment....

2 million trees and counting

New Zealand charity, Trees for Survival Charitable Trust, has been quietly achieving – and surpassing – a phenomenal milestone: more than two million native plants grown and planted by New Zealand school students.Our Rotarian initiated charity, Trees for Survival first began in 1991 with a shade house and a plan to inspire New Zealand students how to grow and nurture NZ native seedlings and planting them in erosion-prone and at-risk land across Aotearoa, New Zealand.What began with three sch...