17th June World Day to Combat Desertification

Every year on June 17th, the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought highlights methods to prevent desertification. It’s also a day to focus on finding ways to recover from drought.

Desertification is the process by which fertile land becomes desert. This is usually a result of drought, deforestation, or inappropriate agriculture.

There are also ways to reverse land degradation. This includes planting trees, enriching the soil with nutrients, preventing soil erosion, and establishing seed banks.

It’s more important than ever to combat desertification and drought. This is because by the year 2050, there needs to be enough productive land to meet the demands of 10 billion people.

In Australia drought can be a major problem, as rainfall is not always the same every year. Indigenous Australians are very good at 'reading' country so a good place to start with children is to look at a book such as Country Tells Us When... by Taheena Cooper 

Some Australian picture books that help explain drought to children:

• Two Summers  by John Heffernan and Freya Blackwood

• It's a Miroocool! by Christine Harris and Ann James 

• All I Want for Christmas is Rain by Cori Brooke and Megan Forward

• When the Waterhole Dried Up by Kaye Baillie and Max Hamilton

• Big Rain Coming by Katrina Germein and Bronwyn Bancroft

• Mrs White and the Red Desert by Josie Boyle and Maggie Prewett

• Drought by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley

• The Story of Rosy Dock by Jeannie Baker

Deforestation is a much harder topic to show children using picture books, but the few I can think of are excellent:

• A Forest by Marc Martin

• Where's the Elephant by Barroux

• The Tree and the River by Aaron Becker

• The Great Kapok Tree  by Lynne Cherry

• Refugees  by David Miller

• Turtle Taxi by Guundie Kuchling

• Window  by Jeannie Baker

• The Tree  by Neal layton

To show students the power of planting trees share one of the excellent picture book biographies about Wangari Maathai planting trees in Kenya.

• Seeds of Change by Jen Cullerton Johnson

• Wangari's Trees of Peace  by Jeanette Winter

• Planting Peace  by Gwendolyn Hooks

• Mama Miti  by Donna Jo Napoli

• Wangari Maathai by Franck Prevot 

• Planting the trees of Kenya  by Claire Nivola

or something more general o trees like

• Trillions of Trees  by Kurt Cyrus

• Little Sap  by Jan Hughes

• It Starts with a Seed by Laura Knowles

26th July National Tree Day

THERE is Chinese proverb that says: "The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.''

With National Tree Day on Sunday and Schools Tree Day on today, it is time to think about planting trees.

The aim of Tree Day is to inspire, educate and recruit Australians to come together to make a positive difference to the environment. Native plants, and usually ones indigenous to the area, are planted to provide food and shelter for wildlife, increase biodiversity and combat habitat loss.

If your school doesn't plant trees there are many other ways to inspire children to think about trees and how important they are. Reading picture books about  real people who have planted trees to save their environment  really inspired a group of year 2 readers at my school. They did a small project on Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmental activist who planted thousands trees which was initiated by the group reading picture books about her life and achievements. There are now five wonderful picture books about Wangari:

• Wangari's Trees of Peace by Jeanette Winter

• Seeds of Change by Jen Fullerton Johnson and Sonia Lynn Sadler

• Mama Miti by Donna Jo Napoli and Kadir Nelson

• Planting the Trees of Kenya  by Claire A. Nivola

• Wangari Maathai by Franck Prevot and Aurelia Fronty

Another book about an environmental project that involved planting trees is
• The Mangrove Tree by Cindy Trumbone and Susan L. Roth

And while we are on the subject of trees and biographies have a look at new book
• Luna and Me  by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw which tells the story of activist Julia Butterfly Hill who lived in a tree for two years to save it from being chopped down, and 
• The Tree Lady by H. Joseph Hopkins and Jill McElmurry which tells the story of activist Kate Sessions' greening of San Diego.

There is a multitude of fantastic books about trees and planting them. Below are many others worth finding at the library!