Written by Rebecca Groat
To celebrate Biodiversity month in September, Charles Sturt Albury ran a variety of events to celebrate and enhance our incredible biodiversity on campus.
The Albury Charles Sturt campus is known to be extremely environmentally friendly, with wetlands made out of our recycled water, buildings made out of mudbrick and valuable habitats for some threatened native animals such as the Sloane’s Froglet and squirrel gliders.
On the September 14, the Albury Res Leaders ran an RUOK? Day event, running multiple stalls such as Headspace, Charles Sturt mental health and wellbeing, Monumental ice-cream, dog-kissing booth and much more!
The Enviro Club and the Sustainability Team at Charles Sturt ran a stall together to celebrate the importance of nature on mental wellbeing.
It is proven that spending time in nature can decrease symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression.
It is greatly important that we keep our natural environment on campus healthy and thriving, not only for our native species but for our students as well.
The stall ran a “tree planting for mental health” activity, allowing students to plant a tree or shrub around their campus buildings.
For each tree they planted, they wrote their name and a message for people to read as they walked past the growing trees.
Some of the messages wrote:
“You are loved”, “Keep going!” and “Remember to smile”.
The students loved being a part of tree planting with the idea that they were planting the seeds of mental resilience and wellbeing, and the growing trees are a constant reminder to look after your mental health.
The following day on September 15, the Campus Environmental Committee and Sustainability Team at Charles Sturt banded together to run a tree planting day.
With the help of over 20 volunteers, 240 seedlings were planted on our campus, having a huge range of environmental benefits.
We extended the habitat of the squirrel glider, allowing them to have increased space for a larger, sustaining population.
We also planted native wattles, as they provide a much-needed food source for the squirrel gliders. Squirrel gliders are listed as vulnerable in NSW and threatened in Victoria, with the main cause of decline due to habitat loss and fragmentation.
Our volunteers placed multiple nesting boxes within the area to encourage nesting and provide important shelter to a variety of species such as the squirrel glider, parrots and other native birds.
We also planted a variety of wetland plant species along a stream running into the new wetland near Carpark 2.
This stream is placed between the known habitat of the critically endangered Sloane’s froglet and the new wetland. The vegetation will allow protection and coverage of the Sloane’s froglet, increasing their population and survival.
As the Sustainability Advisor for Albury, I have been running a “Sunshine Washing Challenge” to encourage students to use their washing lines outside of their houses instead of dryers to reduce our campus emissions.
Each washing line was provided with stainless steel pegs and two 1 litre Frank Green drink bottles are up for grabs for two lucky winners!
So far, the washing challenge has been very successful with the washing lines being full almost every day, compared to a few weeks ago when there were nearly completely unused.
At the end of this thriving sustainable month, the staff and students came together at the “Return of the Whale” event.
Pass the Whale was once a highly attended environmental dinner involving academics, staff and students.
This year we celebrated Return of the Whale with trivia and Paul Humphreys (one of our very own lecturers) book release!
This was a fantastic opportunity for students to meet their academics and have a bit of fun outside of the classroom!
