FOR 20 years Planet Ark has been planting trees in nature care event National Tree Day.

Whitsunday Catchment Landcare (WCL), Whitsunday Regional Council (WRC) and Filby's Toyota invite you to

celebrate locally this Sunday at Cannonvale's Galbraith Park.

There will also be Schools Tree Day on Friday, July 24.

National Tree Day is Australia's largest tree-

planting and nature care celebration.

Each year over 300,000 people take part in National Tree Day events at 3000 sites organised by councils, schools, businesses, communities and Toyota dealers across the country.

The official Whitsunday tree planting will begin at 9am where the sausages will start sizzling to provide sustenance for those participating.

Since Planet Ark launched National Tree Day in 1996, more than 3.5 million participants have planted more than 21 million native trees, shrubs and grasses.

Whitsunday Catchment Landcare co-ordinator Cath Campbell said the area to be planted was an extension of revegetation works along the two creeks that had been undertaken at the Galbraith park site over eight years. "WCL has been working hard to re-establish riparian (creek line) vegetation to assist with erosion prevention, water quality improvement, providing habitat for birds and native animals and creating a forested corridor across the valley," she said. Annual plantings for National Tree Day have occurred for the past eight years with supplementary plantings undertaken at community tree-planting events, funded by a variety of state and federal grants and Whitsunday Catchment Landcare at other times of the year. Funding for this year's event has been provided by the 25-year anniversary of Landcare Grant received by WCL.