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| REVEGETATION
| | Good Seed
Every effort is made to source seed and plant material from natural remnant vegetation at or near each revegetation project site, often involving a partnership between the nursery and those managing the revegetation project: ideally, each project starts with collections of seed suited to the site.
Our nursery order form asks you to consider the question of the provision of seed for each individual project, and if there is enough forward planning, we are happy to help.
Good seed means:
- the right species for the site
- good seed genetics
More on species selection on the Florabank website. |
| The work of revegetation is much more than planting
Because we are intervening in a disturbed and broken landscape, we need to take the time to plan a project, and record our intervention efforts.
At the bottom of this page, there are links to various ways to obtain help for a project. A good starting point is the Native Vegetation Management Tool on the new website of Florabank. |
| | Good revegetation practice
involves an understanding of the flora appropriate for a particular
site or situation, including trees, and shrubs and small plants (sometimes called the understorey). | Some revegetation stories
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| Special topics
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| Good revegetation practice also involves an understanding of what our efforts are for.
- we are not gardening
- we are not landscaping
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Dugite with eggs
Photo: thanks to
© Department of Environment and Conservation
| | WE LIVE HERE TOO!!! | 
Bug on a boronia flower
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Bug on Hibbertia hypericoides flower |
Photos from Ludlow: Martin Pritchard, BDEC | | the bugs have been arriving | | APPROACHES TO REVEGETATION | | Don't do anything yet | - Find out about the
bush you have - make a list of as many species as possible: plant species (including weed species),
birds, frogs, bandicoots, fungi, ... there are people and organisations
to help you - see below.
- Measure the disturbance - you might make a bigger disturbance with your intervention, so err on the side of caution!
- Seek appropriate help.
| | Weed Control | This is often the
first action that needs to be taken. Before any revegetation work
begins, we need to know what we have: plants, animals, soil, ... but we also have to know the difference between what is a weed and what is natural vegetation.
More on weeds ...
| Preparing for a revegetation project
| This advice is mostly don'ts:
- Don't be tempted to blanket even a weedy site with herbicide - you'll be throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Some of our native plants are tiny. For the sake of biodiversity, we need to retain as much natural vegetation as possible.
- Don't try to remove dead material and fallen trees, logs, ... These provide habitat for all the small and large animals that are part of bushland. Without the litter, the birds and lizards (...) have nothing to eat. See the note on fire below.
- But ... check with local authorities what fire precautions are needed for the site (firebreaks, ...).
| | Natural Regeneration | Sometimes, just letting nature take its course is effective.
More commonly with this method, nature is assisted by
- fencing out grazing animals or feral animals like rabbits
- controlling rabbit numbers
- applying smoke or smoked water to an area
- selective weed control
The Bradley Method (Wikipedia) is a particular approach to bush regeneration.
Fox and cat control are also important, because they can cause havoc to the many natural species that live in the bush.
An item on rats.
| | Direct Seeding | If weed control is adequate and there is sufficient seed for the project, direct seeding can be very effective.
'Brushing' is a direct seeding method where plant material containing seed is laid over the area to be rehabilitated.
In wet areas, sometimes the ‘bog’ method is used.
ASGAP: Direct Seeding of Native vegetation to Achieve Biological Diversity.
| | Hand Direct Seeding | Many
plants do not like transplantation, and some species, particularly
those with larger seeds, can be planted in situ provided there is
adequate protection from grazing animals.
The term 'Hand Direct Seeding' is used in different ways:
Direct seeding small areas by hand. Greening Australia note here (pdf download). Another useful note here.
The
process of sowing one or two seeds in the ground where you require a
plant to grow. This
method is useful for many species, especially those with large seeds
like banksias, hakeas, peas, ... Appropriate seed pre-treatments need
to be applied - Soaking in smoke water, hot water, ... There is not much online information available yet on the various treatments for different species. Some resources are listed on our technical page on growing plants from seed.
A marker stake or a tree guard can be useful for protection
and to help you remember where a seed has been planted. Put a name tag
at the spot as well.
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In
some large-scale revegetation projects, large numbers of seeds are
planted by hand, one at a time. An example of this is the winter
planting in Western Australian Alcoa bauxite mining broadacre revegetation project areas with Zamia Palm (Macrozamia riedlei) and Woody Pear (Xylomelum occidentale) seeds - together with cutting and tissue-culture tubestock - after those areas have had topsoil replaced and the entire area direct-seeded in summer by machine with a mix of seeds. In one area, Alcoa sows about 600 tonne of Zamia Palm seed per year.
| | Tubestock Revegetation | Millions of plants are
grown each year in Australia for this method. Care needs to be taken to
ensure that the nursery stock is free of weeds, die-back, pests and
diseases, and that tubestock is planted in sufficient time for winter
rains to establish the plants before the trials of the long dry summer. | | Transplantation | In
some situations – for instance, to save plants threatened by
development (a housing estate, a new road, a road widening, …) – plants
are translocated, taken from one area to another, the revegetation
site, or moved about within an area.
It
is obvious that with this method there is a risk of spreading die-back,
other soil-borne problems, plant diseases, and plant pests (harmful
nematodes, snails, ...)
This method is sometimes used with species like Spinifex spp in a dune restoration project where the problems mentioned above are not as great. | | Fire | There
is a great deal of controversy concerning the use of fire in
regeneration. It is a good idea to seek expert advice. See the note
below about project helps.
Apart from safety issues, the main consideration is the frequency of burning. If we burn too often
- plants don't have time to form fruit [seeds]
- young plants don't become established sufficiently to survive a fire
- we destroy habitat for the many animal species that regard the bush as their home
- we diminish the number of species, ALL SPECIES [plants, animals, ...] that were once a part of that area.
Smoke: A page on the use of smoke in propagation and regeneration,
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| PREPARING FOR YOUR PROJECT
- Find out which species are appropriate for the project.
- Seek advice from us or your project officer about provenance seed or plant resources for the project.
| Contact details for
GeoCatch, the Cape to Cape Catchments Group and Land for Wildlife
are on the nursery Orders page and on the Links page. Project officers from these organisations are trained to help you with your project.
There is also local group help in your area
see Local Landcare Groups on the Links page
These
organisations and groups help you plan a project, help you to manage
it, and help with specifying what needs to be done - for instance, what
particular species to plant if you are planning a planting programme.
In many cases, projects are cooperative ventures between many parties including Commonwealth, State and Local government.
From our point of view, the question
WHAT SHALL WE PLANT
is really important, and we will do our best to help you. |
| LOCAL PROVENANCE
| If you have good bushland on your property or nearby, it may be possible for us to grow plants for you from seed collected in your locality.
Talk to your project officer or talk to us about this. We are happy to come out and collect seed from your site.
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| Local Plants in Cultivation - by Genus: A list of local plants with a cultivation history sometimes of over 200 years. We grow only a fraction of them, but we hope to grow more species as we learn more about our local flora.
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| GEOGRAPHE COMMUNITY LANDCARE NURSERY
WE ARE HERE TO HELP YOU WITH YOUR REVEGETATION PROJECT | | Useful links to revegetation information | A good website for a window into Australian native vegetation questions:
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