ON Friday, a giant tree frog will begin to take shape in the farming landscape near Kentucky, in northern NSW, as part of a celebration of trees on farms.
The event, Children of Treefest, commemorates the 20-year anniversary of the original Treefest, which saw 6000 people visit the Taylor family's farm "The Hill" near Kentucky and plant more than 3000 trees.
Treefest was the brainchild of Jon and Vicki Taylor, who over decades turned "The Hill" from a cold, windswept property into a richly timbered one. Some of the early plantings of radiata pine are now being harvested for the Taylors' on-farm timber enterprise.
Children of Treefest is being run by Jon and Vicki's children, Katherine and Michael Taylor, who want to showcase the effect of about 200,000 trees planted over 30 years on the farm - and to plant another 3000 trees and shrubs.
The trees will be planted in the shape of a 250 metre-long tree frog which will be visible from the Qantas Armidale-Sydney flightpath.
Michael Taylor said he would have liked the tree frog to be about "another 10 km longer", but logistics were against them.
Children of Treefest will run in conjunction with the sixth annual Frog Dreaming conference, which brings school children from across the New England together and, in the words of Sara Schmude from Southern New England Landcare, "connect with our country and connect with each other".
