CONSERVATION ACROSS GENERATIONS

This is a story about five generations, many hands and a common goal. It’s a story about commitment and family. But most of all it’s a story about stories – the stories that we each pass on, from one generation to the next, the tales that run through us to our children and their children, and carry forward into the future. It’s about kids growing up into a world where the story of humans, plants and wild creatures can weave together sustainably and happily. Today’s tale, like Trees For Life, began with an I particularly enjoyed being a grower for some years, and those few years gave me the skills and confidence to more or less ‘go it alone’. organisation called Men of the Trees. The year was 1985. Trees For Life had, just been started by a group of South Australian nature lovers. They were inspired by South African conservation group, Watu wa Miti (Men of the Trees). One active member of Men of the Trees back in South Africa was Charles Samuel, a South Australian expat. Uncle Samuel had a young great-nephew, David Muirhead, then a self-described “budding greenie”. At the urging of Uncle Samuel, David joined the young South Australian environmental organisation, Trees For Life. David recalls the insistent urging of his great-uncle.

“He was of course, like most of that generation, quite a gentleman … he spoke softly. He was already about eighty or something, possibly older, and it was the only time I can remember him getting really animated in a conversation with me. He targeted me. It must have been 30 people, cousins and relations in the front room of the house we were living in … and he sort of hunted me down and I was very thrilled to talk to him because I was already a passionate conservationist. It was a really important connection. I probably would have joined at some later time, but it hadn’t occurred to me. I didn’t even know a local group would be starting, and it was him that told me. Uncle Charles Samuel. He was too old to be planting trees by that stage but he wanted to pass it on. It was a generational thing”.

David’s enthusiasm for nature had been nurtured by his own parents from a young age. His mother, who came to Australia from Switzerland, shared her own amazement for her new home. “My mother couldn’t believe how beautiful most of the nature – birds, animals, plants – just around Adelaide and South Australia were“, he recalls. “We saw some of what would have been the last surviving populations of azure kingfishers in the gorge near here, down at Lady Bay … up until I was about age 15 we used to spot them diving off low branches to pull tiny little fish out of the river. They’re one of the many birds to become extinct

The Muirhead, Gordon and Need families at the Need’s family farm in 1991 (David Muirhead far left and Morgan Muirhead far right, holding a lamb). "The Porosa Patch" of planted tubestock seedlings in the background and ‘current’ plantings in the foreground, with a 1.5 kilometre straight fence line running from farm gate to high rocky knoll at rear of property.

in the Mount Lofty Ranges, and we young family was influenced by the saw them … they’re just dazzling, growing and planting in those early a little thing the size of a sparrow days. Three and a half decades on, dropping down to the water in the David’s daughter Morgan now sits on sunlight … at things like that, my the board of Trees For Life. mother just swooned. And she really Morgan’s children, David’s encouraged my interest in nature“. grandchildren, are growing up as

David’s father, too, supported his the fifth generation of this family natural education, encouraging he with its roots deep in the soil of and his friends to get out and explore. environmental protection. “He encouraged me and like-minded “I’ve got a four year old grandson friends to roam free … so I had much who’s exactly where I was at that fun exploring the Torrens and North age”, says David. “He can already Parklands on foot and bicycle”. tell the difference between a river

This early encouragement left red gum and a South Australian David the perfect target for Uncle blue gum, I’m not joking. It’s not Samuel’s prompting during that because it’s been shoved at him – he family Christmas gathering. David actually just wanted to know. He runs became an active member, growing around picking up sheoak cones, and trees through treasures them the Tree Scheme and undertaking his own growing After nearly four decades of care and devotion to nature, as if they’re made of gold”. David is proud of the endeavors. “I particularly enjoyed being a David has chosen to carry on his lifetime of work with passion he can already see in his grandchildren. grower for some us by including a gift to “All four of my years, and those few years gave Trees For Life in his will. grandkids have a positive view on me the skills nature, and an and confidence to more or less ‘go it interest”. alone’. By that I mean collecting seed David sees the importance of this on and near a good friend’s farm at teaching, of continuing and evolving Dawson … germinating and nurturing the story of conservation. “Somehow a diverse range of local provenance it seems to take a whole generation shrubs and trees using TFL kits …” to learn that the previous one made he recalls. a mistake”, he says. But now, he sees

David and his young family went on the positive impact of the work he and to help with the planting at Dawson, all of us have been doing towards a watering and protecting the trees. better future. They continued to visit regularly “I’ve seen all the hard work that we for over a decade. David’s love for – tens of thousands of volunteers, you environmental work continued and and me and all the others – have sort his personal passion for marine nature of chipped away at, doing education photography “melded nicely with and planting and so on, and you can TFL’s ethos”. see an improved catchment and

But the story begun by Uncle improved wildlife corridors and carbon Samuel did not end with those trees, storage … you can get a sense of all now fully grown and thriving. David’s those things. I do, as I get older”.

“I have seen many positive changes. I’m increasingly impressed with the scale and frequency of revegetation that I see on private property - and National Parks as well, but particularly on private property – and anywhere in South Australia”.

This revegetation is what David says is the “bottom line” of the changes he hopes the future will bring for South Australia’s beautiful landscapes. “Massive revegetation. Not just lines of trees – a proper attempt to restore the habitat. And then the hopping mice and the marsupial moles and the bilbies and the night parrots and so on … they’ll be fine”.

After nearly four decades of care and devotion to nature, David has chosen to carry on his lifetime of work with us by including a gift to Trees For Life in his will. His story, which began with Uncle Samuel passing on his passion to the next generation, will continue through Morgan and, with this gift, continue still further to his grandchildren as they learn and grow in the South Australian landscapes David has worked so hard to protect. The trees he planted at Dawson, now fully grown, are a living reminder of the way the echoes of our positive actions can be heard well into the future.  For information about leaving a gift in your will please contact Maureen McKinnie on 8406 0500 or email maureenmck@treesforlife.org.au.