There are so many things to do over the 9 days of this year's Tree Week! It all starts on Saturday 4 May with the ACT Tree Climbing Championships (ANBG) and goes through to Sunday 12 May with a Guided Walk to STEP. Read on for full details and the detailed program.

After last year's successful STEP into Plein Air, all artists and would-be-artists are welcome to join this year's event. This is another event celebrating Tree Week.

Council has approved these Guidelines for Friends' Activities Approval Process. Should you have a great idea for a funding project/proposal to be spear-headed by the Friends, this document will help you through the process!

There is plenty to see in STEP this month. Colourful flowers and colourful butterflies. Take a peek here and then go and see for yourself at STEP!

The Friends of the National Arboretum Canberra Inc's Annual General Meeting will be held on Tuesday 14 May 2019 commencing at 5.30pm in the Margaret Whitlam Pavilion. Come one, come all for a festive evening!

The first three Zigzag Gardens in the Central Valley of the Arboretum were launched on 28 March, having been planted last December. They are a stunning example of how wonderful this Valley will look when all the Zigzag Gardens are complete.

The weather is starting to get cooler and it will soon be time for daylight saving to end so more time to knit and crochet in the evenings. In July we will make the National Arboretum even more spectacular than it already is and our efforts also go towards helping charities once the display is over. Our diplomatic partner for 2019 is the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Our themes for this year will be colourful tulips and amazing bicycles. And the theme colour for the scarves will be orange (which is the royal colour for the Netherlands).

Thanks to all our committed donors, we have passed the $10,000 mark. Join us on our journey towards $50,000 and demonstrate your passion for our wonderful Arboretum!

There are still some vacancies for three upcoming Parts to a course on Trees of the Arboretum. Each Part gives information on around a quarter of our Arboretum tree species. The dates are as follows: Part 2: Mondays, 8 April to 20 May Part 3: Thursdays, 30 May to 4 July Part 4: Tuesdays, 23 July to 27 August The sessions run from 9:30 am to 11:30 am at Hughes Baptist Church. Two walks are included with each Part. If you are interested in attending, please contact Joanne Maples at [email protected] You need to be a current member of U3A to enrol.

Take yourself for a shady walk this summer along one of our Forest Trails. Go in your own time - early or late in the day. The map of the Self-Guided Forest Trails appears below.