Bushfire Recovery Nurseries

Planting 1.2M native trees by 2025 in fire and flood affected areas

YEAR: 2020
STATE: National
FOCUS AREAS: Healing our Land/Saving Species

Environmental Challenge: Addressing Native Plant Shortages and Battling Invasive Species

Created in response to the 19/20 bushfires, the much needed Bushfire Recovery Project (BRP) has evolved into one of the largest community-led restoration programs in Australia.

A crucial aspect of long-term restoration is ensuring that the right plants are planted in the right place to maximise ecosystem stability and biodiversity long term and to put it simply, there is a shortage of suitable native plant stock to regenerate areas affected by fires, floods and habitat degradation for our threatened species.

Australia already faces a significant invasive species challenge with 82% of the country’s threatened species being affected by plants or animals that are not historically local to the area. Therefore, ensuring that each tree planted is truly suited to its local ecosystem is not just important but vital.

Solution: Rebuilding Ecosystems After Bushfires

The Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife Bushfire Recovery Project increases the production and availability of local provenance plants to build environmental resilience, support the biodiversity of threatened and native species, and restore ecological communities within the regions most impacted by the 2019–20 bushfires and subsequent floods.

The project supports the complete supply chain required to restore and build resilience in the land including building native seedbanks, sourcing local provenance native seeds, propagating appropriate species and replanting key ecosystems in need of regeneration.

To maximise environmental outcomes, the project targets 5 key biodiversity areas:

Gondwana Rainforest UNESCO World Heritage Area & New South Wales North Coast
Wollemi National Park & Blue Mountains UNESCO World Heritage Area in New South Wales
South Coast NSW to Gippsland Corridor, in New South Wales and Victoria
Kosciuszko NP & Alpine regions in New South Wales and Victoria
Mount Lofty to Kangaroo Island Connection in South Australia

By restoring the land and planting trees our ecosystems become more stable, vibrant and biodiverse hubs that are better equipped to respond, recover, and continue to function in the face of future challenges. This, in turn, better protects the local communities, plants, and threatened species that call our beautiful land home.

Impact: Growing Resilience

The project is now one of the largest community-led restoration projects in Australia, collaborating with community volunteers, First Nations groups, Landcare groups, and landowners to restore and build ecosystem resilience and support biodiversity in the long term.

To date, it has achieved:

It has seen 620,000 trees grown and 530,000 native trees planted. These trees have been instrumental in revegetating, regenerating, supplementing, and restoring ecosystem function.
The project has restored over 1200 hectares across 4 states. It accomplished this by establishing a network of 18 community-led nurseries that actively support locally-led restoration efforts.
The project operates in 5 key biodiversity areas, including two UNESCO World Heritage listed areas.
Looking ahead, the commitment to engaging and partnering with First Nations people remains a critical component of the Landscape Resilience Program. This partnership is essential for both the restoration and management of identified habitats and biodiversity assets.