More than half a million seedlings sprouting has cameras pointing at Bruce Ivers’ efforts along Myalup Beach

With more than half a million seedlings sprouted, a West Australian conservationist is soon to be a small film superstar. Bruce Ivers — the man who planted half a million native seedlings over his lifetime — returned to Myalup Beach last week, with a camera in tow to talk about the power of collective impact. As part of a short documentary facilitated by Perth NRM, Mr Ivers is being featured alongside other environmental warriors across the State for their major contributions to conservation. Perth NRM Collective Impact project manager Craig Pensini said the documentary is a showcase of the several instances of collective impact across the State showcasing how groups involved in small landscape restoration projects work together. “One of the ideas was to go to some of our partners that we’ve worked with over the course of the project, and actually look at the work that they’re doing on the ground and show an example of actually how collective impact is actually already happening out in our communities,” Mr Pensini said. Mr Ivers said it was great to be back on the beach and talking about his previous planting efforts. In the documentary, Mr Ivers talks about the challenges and approach he took to best ensure seedlings survived through years of extermination. He talks about involving school students with the process and helping them understand the various variables involved in planting days. Ardross Primary School teacher Auriol Heary said she has been involved with Mr Ivers planting project at Myalup Beach since 2018, bringing hundreds of year six students to the coastline to take part in the planting efforts. “It has been great, because the kids have learned how important it is to follow scientific procedure exactly,” she said. “This is a community base that is contributing to a database that anybody can use and I think that’s really big for kids to understand too. “I think we underestimate kids a lot, but they have no trouble with this sort of stuff.”