Do you find gyms unwelcoming and jogging harsh on your body? Do you avoid competitive team sports and find chlorine pools make your hair smell?

Do you love bushwalking and spending your time in a natural environment? Your path to fitness and wellbeing may be in a bush regeneration group. And you will be helping to save our planet along the way.

All over the world, people are gathering together to regenerate their local paddocks and parklands with trees and plants native to their area. Most community bush regeneration, or landcare, groups are made up of volunteers with a trained bush regenerator to educate the group and be responsible for the weeding and planting of the area.

Can you imagine the weedy patch of land at the end of your street flourishing with hundreds of tiny seedlings, recreating the abundance of their pre-buildings and asphalt world. It can happen quickly. Even a few months after weeding and planting, native birds and butterflies will return to an area, restoring its original colour and beauty.

Perhaps you live by a river where unsuitable vegetation has degraded the soil and chemicals from local farming have reduced the water quality. You may be lucky enough to live near a beach but notice that the native plants on the dunes have gone and the dunes are almost blowing away.

Find out if there is a bush regeneration group in your area, and if not, you may have the opportunity to start one. Groups are usually formed by a few keen individuals and then supported by other community groups and schools.

Guided by a bush regenerator or horticulturalist, bush regeneration volunteers learn to identify weeds and native plants using identification books and charts. These skills, combined with instruction in tool use and first aid, and a sunhat and sunburn cream, equip volunteers to set about the task of weed removal and replanting, and to share the excitement of seeing a degraded patch spring to life.

Bush regeneration can be a high-energy activity or gentle, depending on your desires and abilities. If you are up for a few hours of serious tree pulling out, chopping down and sawing up you are bound to be able to find it, but most regeneration involves lighter work such as weed removal, and planting.

Perhaps the best aspect of this form of exercise and recreation is that it gets you close to the earth – a grounding and calming experience. If you have a busy or anxious mind, or have been spending too many hours using the energy above your shoulders, working in the bush will bring your body down to earth and remind you of the inherent strength and quiet beauty of the planet we are here to care for.

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