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More than 3300 students from 118 Auckland schools have grown and planted over 100,000 native plants this year through the Trees for Survival programme.
For 35 years, Trees for Survival has connected schools, landowners and communities through practical conservation projects and now works with 252 schools nationwide. Auckland students have taken part in planting projects from Awhitu and Hunua to Kawakawa Bay and Tapora.
Each participating school receives an irrigated growing unit and about 900 native seedlings annually. Students nurture the plants for several months before planting them on farms, stream banks and restoration sites.
In Leigh, students helped transform a site previously overrun by kikuyu grass into a restoration area intended to reduce sediment flowing into the nearby marine reserve.
Auckland Council sustainable schools adviser and Trees for Survival coordinator Kate de Groot said the programme allowed students to see the collective impact of their work.
“When our youth have a chance to slow down and look at what their individual actions create as a whole, there is a deep inward breath of satisfaction and wonderment. They feel the difference they have made to the environment.”
More than seven kilometres of Auckland waterways have been fenced and planted through the programme this year, helping improve water quality, reduce erosion and provide habitat for native species while protecting kauri ecosystems and remnant bush.
The work involves Trees for Survival, Auckland Council, schools, landowners, community groups, sponsors and volunteers.
Auckland Council Healthy Waters senior specialist Anna Halliwell said the programme’s legacy extended beyond its environmental benefits.
“I think there’s something around the number of adults who remember their Trees for Survival experiences, and it’s shaped them to become volunteers in future.
“I think the ecological and stream health impacts have been huge and contribute to the wider health of our harbours.”
Trees for Survival schools have planted more than one million native plants over the past decade, and the trust aims to plant another million by 2030.
This spring, Auckland schools will receive a further 100,000 native seedlings to nurture in their growing units ahead of planting in 2027.
The charitable trust recently won the Excellence in Strategy category at the 2026 South and East 2degrees Auckland Business Awards for its long-term environmental restoration work.
