Some 100 native trees were planted at the confluence of the Ovens and Buckland rivers at Porepunkah last Sunday as part of local efforts to support National Tree Day.

The Upper Ovens Valley Landcare Group (UOVLG) invited community members to help plant blackwood, red gum, swamp gum and Omeo gum varieties to rehabilitate the natural environment.

An enthusiastic team of approximately 30 local Landcare volunteers also performed lots of weeding and tidying of previous plantings.

"Over 8000 native plants are now improving these riparian areas of Porepunkah," UOVLG vice president, Martyn Paterson said.

"Our thanks to everyone involved and to North East Catchment Management Authority for their support with the plants and tree guards.

"Thanks too to Malcom Wilson from Globalgreen, who are the suppliers of our new 100 per cent biodegradable tree guards."

The UOVLG held a field-day at the Porepunkah site on Tuesday 28 July, to evaluate the condition of tree-guards from previous working bees, with representatives from Parks Victoria, DEECA, NECMA, Alpine Shire, Alpine Nursery and the Myrtleford and Bright Landcares in attendance

"Historically, tree planting efforts in the region have used green, plastic CorFlute tree-guards," Mr Paterson said.

"The problem with CoreFlute, particularly if they're left for more than a year or two, is they disintegrate into a million pieces, which of course is terrible for the environment.

"So a lot of spare time has been spent pulling out those lost or damaged core flute guards and assessing the damage.

"The other issue we have is traditionally tree planting has been done with milk carton-sized tree guards, but the wild deer just destroy the plants and I discovered on one site the local wombat likes to eat them.

"So, now we've trialed the more suitable 1.2 metre tree guards and if it's deemed a success, our ambition is to clear the Ovens Valley of CorFlute plastic completely.

"I'm very happy to be part of a very dynamic Ovens Valley network of Landcare community who are trying to make a difference."