Welcome to PlantFest

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Since 2022, Friends of Perry Lakes has brought volunteers together to restore native understorey across Perry Lakes Reserve. What began as a single planting on an area of lawn has grown, with support from the Town of Cambridge, into more than 20,500 plants in the ground — work that continues each year through our PlantFest event.

Why understorey matters

Lawn and scattered trees might look neat, but they give wildlife little to live on. Understorey — the shrubs, sedges, groundcovers and rushes beneath the tree canopy — is where most of the reserve's animals actually shelter and feed. It provides cover from predators, nesting spots for small birds, and the leaf litter that ground-dwelling animals rely on.

That habitat is making a difference. As understorey has come back, so have quenda (southern brown bandicoot), which need thick, low vegetation to shelter in and forage under during the day. Their diggings are now a regular sight around our planting areas. The same cover shelters small birds like fairy-wrens and thornbills, along with the reptiles, frogs and invertebrates that support the reserve's food chain.

Each year our community comes out in force to plant another section of habitat. As you walk around Perry Lakes, keep an eye out for the signs marking each year's planting, to see the impact this community event is having on our Reserve.