![PLANTING A FUTURE: Mick Stanton and Caleb Attenborough from Merriwa Industries and Jaclyn Symes Member for Northern Victoria planting tube stock plants on the Hume Highway road reserve. PLANTING A FUTURE: Mick Stanton and Caleb Attenborough from Merriwa Industries and Jaclyn Symes Member for Northern Victoria planting tube stock plants on the Hume Highway road reserve.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/128816459/222cc101-0285-44c8-af26-3150799a554e.jpg/r0_376_4032_2643_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
A critically endangered species may find a new home in plantings along the Hume Highway from a north east based all abilities team project.
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The Australian native Regent Honeyeater is facing habitat clearing, environmental degradation and is as critically endangered under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
At least 19 workers from Merriwa Industries, a Wangaratta based social enterprise which employs people with disabilities, will plant 9000 trees, shrubs and ground covers along the Hume Highway road reserve to create more habitat for the species.
Merriwa's Park Lane nursery manager Maria Wadley said it was a great opportunity for the organisation.
"Our crew loves being part of projects like the Regent Honeyeater one," she said.
"It has a real positive impact on that threatened species, on its ability for the numbers to increase again.
"We get a real buzz from being involved in projects like that."
The planting sites in Chiltern and Glenrowan run over five kilometres and will help link habitats for the Regent Honeyeater.
She said the project was also "fantastic" because it could be a multi-year project, meaning more people could be employed.
"It just means a more stable and sustainable future for the nursery in our production and in our planting crews," she said.
The all-abilities team will plant tube stock plants grown at their Park Lane nursery, including Silver Wattles, River Red Gums, Yellow Box, Common Wallaby Grass, Gold Dust Wattle, Sweet Bursaria, and Kangaroo Grass.
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Ms Wadley said the project would allow the all-abilities team to develop their technical work skills and their self-confidence.
"We're actually training some of our all abilities team to do some of the seed sowing, which is actually quite a specialised skill," she said.
"So it's allowing us to train our guys to do more of that and its the whole quality process from start to finish.
"That builds confidence both in the workplace and out in the community.
"Work is about probably 30 per cent the wage our guys take home and the rest is about connection and social interaction, learning those skills, be they work or life skills."
Victoria Government is funding the project.
Member for Northern Victoria Jaclyn Symes said the initiative was a great example of creating a more sustainable transport network to safeguard native fauna.
"As custodians of the environment, we are pleased to be supporting habitat creation for the endangered Regent Honeyeater," she said.
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