Upper Snowy Landcare Network
Upper Snowy Landcare Network distribute 12,000 free native seedlings in the Snowy Monaro thanks to the Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife.
The last two years have been totally gratifying as more than 60 local landholders put their hands up to plant more than 12,000 much-appreciated free native seedlings.
Upper Snowy Landcare Network has been responding since 2016 to the devastating tree dieback episode that has left a hole the size of the ACT in our functional biodiversity. Then along came the fires in the already stressed drought-affected landscape, and while the Snowy Monaro was not fully engulfed, the pressure on our vegetation was extreme.
In our reaction to the tree dieback, our initial instinct was to get straight out and plant local native rehabilitation plots which is what we have done, and to date, there are 50 of these plots successfully growing. Much of this planting was fully funded by government grants and we understood that the amount of revegetation was still very small considering the landmass devoid of trees and shrubs, and the price to install these plots is very expensive. We subsequently prepared a detailed paper on how to motivate landholders themselves to plant their own rehabilitation plots and or augment good habitats with missing species and keep them protected.
Our dream came true when the FNPW provided us with the free giveaway tree project. At first, as if we were weaning the local landholders into self-activation (planting their own plots) we provided support by supplying a free tree guard with each seedling for the first 10,000 seedlings and the latter 2,000 landholders were totally responsible for the guard themselves. Although 4 lucky landholders were delighted when a local new guard supplier offered free guards for 450 plants. Thank you to the Planting Systems Australia for this giveaway.
In two years 12,000 seedlings have made it into the ground. This is a great effort and we hope that this opportunity and desire continues so we ‘all’ act to replace what has been lost from historic tree clearing and strange episodes like dieback