There are many things to love about studying and working at Macquarie. And high among them of course are the beautiful green spaces on campus that distinguish us from other universities. Here’s a list of how maintaining that commitment to trees and wildlife remains at the forefront of planning throughout the Campus Development works.

• The University replants two trees for every one impacted by development , including planting 50 locally native trees every year.

• Within our broader open space network, the Campus Master Plan identifies approximately nine hectares of naturally forested and creek-side lands to be managed long-term for biodiversity values. This is equal to 7 per cent of the campus.

• Since 2010, two hectares of bushland in and around the University Fauna Park have been under a program of assisted natural regeneration, which has resulted in hundreds of young trees coming up and reproductions of other ground and shrub layer species.

• Naturalising of previously disturbed land along our creeks has been progressing since 2008. The regeneration effort to date has grown the coverage of habitat zones along our creeks by 25 per cent in eight years, while adding more than 100,000 native plants to the campus environment.

• Bushcare@MQ, a group of staff, students and the community, meets regularly to help preserve the biodiversity of our beautiful campus. Learn more and join the group on Facebook.

• When deciding which species of trees to plant in public spaces, we take into consideration the tree’s size at maturity, rate of growth in the early stages, projected lifespan, limb/canopy stability, and its visual and local-cooling amenity.

• All trees in the areas used on a daily basis by staff, students and other visitors are part of an ongoing audit to ensure they are safe.

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Save the date to help us plant new trees on campus Friday 23 March. More details will be shared in the coming weeks.