School strike for climate change prompts farmer to plant trees for protesters

One for each of the protesters who marched down Wagga Wagga's Baylis Street during 2019's School Strike for Climate Action.

Ordered last spring, the seedlings were a response to the comments of then Acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack who said it would have been better for the protesters to "plant a tree" rather than "go down the streets and cheer and scream and carry on like pork chops".

"When he said that, we said, 'well ok, we can do that as well'," Ms Meier said.

"Of course, it would be faster if the whole nation did it, and the federal government helped us do it.

"But it won't solve climate change on its own."

The trees Ms Meier, of Grong Grong, has chosen to plant include a range of species endemic to the Riverina region, including eucalypts, kurrajongs, bull oak, and a few different types of shrub and grass.

In the wake of the summer's catastrophic fires, Ms Meier believes her simple action has taken on greater significance.

Though, she admits it is a "drop in the ocean compared to what's needed".

"It's not enormous in terms of broad acres, but it is in impact. Yet nothing compares to the losses in the bushfires," Ms Meier said.

"The offset numbers don't add up with what's lost, you can't hurry a tree to grow.

"You can't replace the carbon storage just overnight."