RV FoRestore organised a tree planting session on 3rd September, as part of the NUS Cares initiative. NUS Cares is a university-wide movement encouraging the NUS community to volunteer in initiatives that give back to society. Under the guidance of forest ecologist and Honorary RVRC Fellow Dr Chua Siew Chin, RVRC FoRestore raises awareness of Singapore forests through hands-on involvement. On the day RVRC students travelled to Chestnut Nature Park and plated trees native to Singapore.
FoRestore has been spearheading reforestation efforts in Chestnut Nature Park, where they work on reforesting several plots and have planted more than 200 trees so far. RVRC student volunteers helped to plant 50 saplings at the tree-planting session, which was part of the Friends of Chestnut Nature Park community initiative that promotes good stewardship of our forests and parks. Five years ago RVRC founded Friends of Chestnut Nature Park in partnership with the National Parks Board (NParks). Students from different disciplines were initiated into reforestation efforts.
Chu Jia Xuan, a year 2 Environmental Studies major commented on his NUS Cares tree planting session with FoRestore, “It was an enjoyable experience and I got more accustomed to being with nature. My biggest takeaway was the importance of forest restoration, which cannot be easily achieved on its own due to invasive non-native trees and other weeds.”
