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REVEGETATION
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Geographe Community Landcare
Nursery
Tubestock for revegetation
projects
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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.
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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. |
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| 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). |
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BOOKS
BUCHANAN, Robin.A. (2009)
Restoring natural areas in Australia, NSW Industry
and Investment, 9780731306213
This is a very useful manual for all aspects of
ecological restoration in Australia. It is a
textbook originating from Tocal
College, NSW. |
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Special
topics
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More topics:
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| 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.
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| 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 ...
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Preparing for a revegetation
project
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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,
...).
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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:
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Direct seeding small areas by
hand. Greening Australia note
here (pdf download). Another useful note here.
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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.
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| 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. |
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A Note
on Longstem Plants
This is a technique pioneered in NSW for riverbank
stabalisation, but now also used in arid areas, areas affected by
salinity, sand dunes and rainforests. Specially grown tubestock
(kept in a forestry tube for 2 years and regularly fertilised) are
planted in deep holes (often using an auger or a water
lancing jet) so that about three-quarters of the plant is
buried.
[Acknowledgements to Restoring natural areas in Australia
for this note - see above under Books].
Online references:
In Western Australia, this technique has been used
in coastal dune rehabilitation plantings. So far, our nursery does not produce longstem tubestock, but
some of our older plants could be used in trials of the method.
However, we do grow Carroll Tree Tubes on request.
Unfortunately, there is little information about
Carroll Tree Tubes on the internet. Carroll Tree Tubes tubestock
are grown in about 1 metre long plastic split-cylinders, creating a
very long root system compared with conventional 50mm forestry
tubes. The planting technique is similar to that of longstem
plants.
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| 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.
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| 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 local seed or plant resources for the
project.
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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.
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LOCAL SEED
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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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| Plants
for windbreaks, wetlands, streamlines, saline areas,
... |
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Links to useful ONLINE revegetation information (see also
BOOKS above) |
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Back to the Home Page
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GEOGRAPHE COMMUNITY LANDCARE
NURSERY
WE ARE HERE TO
HELP YOU WITH YOUR REVEGETATION PROJECT |
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