ReLeaf Spring 2019

f a e ReL GIFTS FROM THE HEART A Trees For Life Publication SPRING 2019 ISSUE 151

BANDICOOTS, BLACKBERRIES AND BUSHCARE

SAVING THE SILVER DAISY

DIRECT SEEDING SUCCESS AND A SEA CHANGE

O E C d n a t n e id s e r our P A MESSAGE FROM

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d ellar

GIFTS FROM THE HEART

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BANDICOOTS, BLACKBERRIES AND BUSHCARE

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CONSERVATION IN THE CLIMATE CRISIS

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WORLDS END STARTS A NEW STORY

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FINNISS FAREWELLS A FRIEND

11 SEEDING SUCCESS AND A SEA CHANGE

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Dear friends,

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e’re very fortunate to have the loyal support of our donors, many of whom have been here for us for years or even decades. Some have left South Australia but continue their connection with us. Their passion and regard for the land and desire to do whatever they can to improve it endures beyond state boundaries.

Across the country, people respond to our calls for assistance in ways that are heartfelt and meaningful.

Our recent Sow Seeds For Life campaign highlighted just how much people care about our native wildlife.

We saw so much love expressed for the gorgeous south-eastern redtailed black-cockatoo and a true determination to come to the aid of this iconic bird. Your donations mean we can collect seeds from surviving stringybarks and bulokes to grow more essential food trees. Thank you to everyone who supported our work

for the cockies – we can’t wait to see their homes grow and hopefully watch their numbers swell.

Just as we need to nurture those seedlings to help them reach maturity, ensuring they have all they need to thrive, so we must nourish Trees For Life. In order to continue spreading our love of the land and saving our threatened species, we need to ensure we have the financial resources to achieve our mission and vision.

Whenever you make a gift to Trees For Life you will be supporting efforts to restore and protect our precious landscapes and wildlife, now and into the future. To all our past, present and future donors, we thank you wholeheartedly for your help.

Sincerely, Maureen McKinnie, Fundraising and Marketing Manager 

CONTACT US

IN THIS ISSUE… 2

we really can create lasting change.

Please share your Trees For Life journey with friends and family … and with us. We always love to hear your stories.

A great opportunity to swap stories is at our end of year party. It’s also our chance to say thanks, celebrate your amazing efforts and meet old and new friends who share a passion for SA’s precious landscapes.

Please join us from 5:30-7:30pm on Wednesday 27 November at Thebarton Community Centre. We hope to see you there. 

Na ta

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W

e are part of a vast community of people who connect deeply with Australian landscapes.

As you read about the projects and people featured here, we hope you feel inspired by the labour of love behind our achievements, just as we feel inspired by the volunteers and supporters whose dedication helps us make a real difference.

We look forward to watching hundreds of hectares of bushland in the Swan Reach region spring to life over the coming years thanks to an outstanding effort to sow over 1,500 kilometres of native seeds after the area’s first good rain in half a decade.

We say farewell to Direct Seeding Program Manager Dennis Hayles, after this culmination of his 17 years with us, which you can read about in this edition. We also farewelled our wonderful Trees For Life Works Program Manager, Matthew Endacott, who skilfully led the team for a decade. Matt’s excellent relationships with our clients and experienced business management led to a record year in 2018-2019 for the program.

Huge thanks to Matt and Dennis for sharing their passion for our land with so many South Australians.

Australian landscapes stir our hearts in so many ways – outstanding views, ancient gum trees, magical birdsong, vibrant colours and unique scents.

Part of our mission is to introduce more people to this richness all around us. On the cover we feature the golden wattle, Australia’s magnificent floral emblem. Natasha recently asked a group of Year 1 school children if they knew the golden wattle and the response was – “No”!

By inspiring more people to share our passion for Australian landscapes,

Pre sid

SPREADING OUR PASSION FOR AUSTRALIAN PLANTS AND ANIMALS

GIFTS FROM THE HEART

Indigenous Australians have sustainably managed our landscapes and wildlife for tens of thousands of years.

Trees For Life acknowledges and respects the Traditional Custodians of our Country and we pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.

We also acknowledge and respect the deep spiritual connection and relationship that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have to Country.

THANKS TO OUR HABITAT HEROES On behalf of Peter the western pygmy possum, we’d like to say thank you to everyone who participated in our Habitat Hero Lottery. Your support raised vital funds to help us create homes for threatened and endangered species like Peter and his family.

Congratulations to our first prize ticket holder, Geoff Swadling, and all those who took home runnerup prizes.

FUNDRAISING PARTNER: OFFICEWORKS CROYDON

ReLeaf is a production of Trees For Life

A big thanks to the wonderful team at Officeworks Croydon.

Their ‘Round Up to Make a Difference’ initiative raised $2,970.56 to help us restore and protect South Australian landscapes.

Editor: Sam Catford Email: samc@treesforlife.org.au Printing: Finsbury Green 100% Recycled Carbon Neutral IS014001 Environment Management Systems Cover Photo: Acacia pycnantha Trees For Life 5 May Tce, Brooklyn Park 5032 Phone: 08 8406 0500 Email: info@treesforlife.org.au www.treesforlife.org.au

13 Trees For Life News 14 What’s on at Trees For Life 15 Volunteer Spotlight 1

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FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Rachel, Soha, Tayla and Bethany from Officeworks Croydon.

BANDICOOTS, BLACKBERRIES AND BUSHCARE CORPORATE PARTNERS HELP REVIVE SOUTHERN BUSHLAND Claire Bowman

TOP LEFT: Yellowfooted antechinus.

TOP RIGHT: Southern brown bandicoot.

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undreds of years ago, before European settlers brought cities and sweeping farmlands to South Australia, bandicoots foraged in the thick undergrowth across much of the state. Today, these elusive little marsupials are hard to spot. Partly this is due to their habit of hiding in thick, shrubby understorey plants. For the most part, it’s because there aren’t many bandicoots left.

Eight species of bandicoot and bilby once made their home here. Now, only one remains. The nationally endangered southern brown bandicoot1 can be seen, with a little luck, from the Williamstown area down to the Fleurieu Peninsula, 3

across Yorke Peninsula and Kangaroo Island. Like tiny ecosystem architects, bandicoots dig into the soil for insects, larvae and fungi, promoting native plant growth. In the past they hid from native predators like snakes and owls by sitting in the thick skirts of yacca grass trees2 and other dense, low natives. Today, with much of their native home removed or degraded, bandicoots take shelter in the impenetrable brambles of invasive blackberries3.

“They eat the fruit but they don’t need to,” says Bush For Life Operations Manager Peter Watton. “It’s not for eating … it’s for protection from foxes and cats.” In many areas the spiny brambles of this weed are the only

thing protecting the bandicoots from introduced predators – foxes, dogs and feral cats.

Infestations of blackberries are often found around creek lines in remnant patches of bushland where Bush For Life now performs bushcare.

Many of these sites would have once been home to the southern brown bandicoot and other species that are now under threat. One such area is Cherry Gardens, near the Mount Bold Reservoir, where a collaborative effort between Bush For Life and our corporate partners is reviving 119 hectares of bush.

Field Officer Mark Hardham is tasked with protecting this area, home to many endangered plants and animals like the yellow-footed antechinus4, crested shrike tit5 and chestnut-rumped heathwren6. With the support of corporate partners SA Water and ElectraNet, Mark has been running bushcare days on four sites to remove common weeds and give natives the chance to flourish.

He says that with hundreds of natives in the area, the Scott Creek Conservation Park next door, a 66 hectare ElectraNet site and three adjacent SA Water sites covering 53 hectares, the area has great potential to be a stronghold for natives. “That whole area … locally, you’d consider it a biodiversity hotspot,” he says.

This has been recognised by SA Water, ElectraNet, National Parks and Wildlife Service, the Friends of Scott Creek Conservation Park and Natural Resources Adelaide and Mt Lofty Ranges. These groups have come together to form a working committee to “strategise and pool resources,” according to Mark. This cooperative approach to conservation creates a strong force for positive change, which is visible in these four sites around Cherry Gardens.

The first three sites, Peter says, have now moved into a “follow-up and maintenance” phase, while a fourth site on SA Water land is now the focus. “We took on a third site [at Mount Bold Reservoir] several years ago … that site they’ve covered and expanded, already to double its original size.”

According to Peter, the new site is in “very good condition.” However, there’s plenty for the volunteers to do.

“It’s got a lot of weedy areas. It’s got a creek line going through it … they’re usually weedy.” Besides the usual suspects like boneseed7, African daisy8, Aunt Eliza9 and bluebell creepers10, the main challenge here is Erica11, otherwise known as tree heath, a tough woody weed.

“We do drill and fill if they’re big enough because they do have the lignotuber like an olive,” says Mark. “They don’t look like olives … particularly when they’re small, they’re pretty hard to tell apart from some of the natives … for the uneducated eyes it’s a bit difficult, but a day of bushcare work and all the new vollies are pretty well comfortable.”

As the volunteers discover, this type of bushcare requires a special breed of love and determination. There’s the “potential to cover big areas with only a few weeds in them, then there’ll be the bigger weed infestations that we need to chip away at … the weeds have been there for a long time and take a while [to remove].”

The most important aspect of this conservation work, however, is acknowledging that nothing is black and white. Removing all the invasive blackberries immediately would spell disaster for the southern brown bandicoots that have been spotted in the area. Peter says the bandicoots are hard to find, but make appearances across the established sites. “I wouldn’t be surprised if [the bandicoot] was in that new Marshall Road site,” he says, although Mark says there’s no evidence of that yet.

‘Evidence’ could include nests of leaf litter and grasses hidden in the shrubs, or small conical holes called snout pokes, which bandicoots leave behind after they dig for insects.

With luck, it could be a peek at the animal itself. While nothing has been seen so far, the proximity of the sites in this area means that, with careful regeneration, this new area will likely support more bandicoots and other native species before too long.

To ensure that can happen, Bush For Life and partners must approach bushcare and weed removal with both strategy and patience. “It means 4

that we don’t just go in there and get rid of all the blackberry. If there are bandicoots there we make sure that it’s staged,” says Peter. When it comes to blackberries and bandicoots, slow and steady is the only way, allowing the native groundcover plants to recover in the wake of phases of blackberry removal.

According to Mark, the whole Cherry Gardens area has the potential to be expanded even further in the future, and could eventually cover as much as 200 hectares, providing a unique habitat for so many species.

For now, this unique habitat includes blackberries. As Mark says, “… we try and formalise it by putting boundaries around things … but nature doesn’t look at it that way.” Nature adapts and shifts, making bushcare not only an act of conservation, but also an act of compromise.  1) Isoodon obesulus obesulus 2) Xanthorrhoea sp) 3) Rubus fruticosus L) agg) 4) Antechinus flavipes 5) Falcunculus frontatus 6) Hylacola pyrrhopygia 7) Chrysanthemoides monilifera 8) Senecio pterophorus 9) Chasmanthe floribunda 10) Billardiera heterophylla 11) Erica lusitanica

Mark and the other Field Officers are always looking for passionate volunteers to help with bushcare on over 300 sites like this.

If you love the bush and want to help it recover, and save endangered species like the bandicoot from extinction, contact us to learn about sites in your area.

CONSERVATION IN THE CLIMATE CRISIS SAVING THE SILVER DAISY Claire Bowman

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ecent plantings of 3,000 silver daisy seedlings were the culmination of over 12 months of research, bringing together traditional land care practices and new knowledge in an attempt to save a threatened species.

Alongside the University of Adelaide and the Department of Environment and Water, we’re working to secure the future of the silver daisy1.

The project has focused on two key areas – genetics and climate change.

By conducting genetic research, we can determine the best way to conserve and strengthen remaining daisy populations. Meanwhile, climate change modelling allows us to establish stronger populations in landscapes that will support them well into the future.

Analyses of the silver daisy populations across South Australia show that they’re very closely related.

“In the bulk of South Australia they’re very similar, genetically,” says Bush For Life Program Manager, Amelia Hurren, who has managed the project.

MAIN: Silver daisy flowers at Finniss.

RIGHT: A mature silver daisy bush in bloom.

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In the past, before clearing divided the landscape, plant and animal populations could move and migrate more freely. Silver daisy populations were able to cross-pollinate, allowing a flow of genes across the landscape. However, decades of land clearing has caused fragmentation of the populations, meaning gene flow has now ceased. According to Amelia, that’s one of the major concerns around the silver daisy’s survival. “We’re seeing this [genetic] differentiation and inbreeding because we’re not getting the genetic flow … that’s pretty clear in the genetic plot.”

Knowing this has allowed us to reassess our strategy for obtaining silver daisy seeds for translocations.

Standard practice is to ensure ‘local’ seed provenance, meaning seeds are sourced from as close to the planting site as possible – usually within 20 kilometres. This is the easiest way to ensure a seedling’s genetic makeup is appropriate for the area. With tested genetic data, however, we can confidently plant daisies from non-

local areas that are genetically similar to local populations.

This new research not only affords us increased flexibility in seed sourcing, but also improves the outlook for the plant. “The assumption we’re making is that by increasing the genetic diversity in the populations that we’re working on, we’re increasing their capacity to adapt, and [improving] their genetic diversity and health. And size, too – by adding several hundred plants into one patch we’re increasing the number of plants in the landscape, which will hopefully then increase the health and resilience of the species.”

This approach stirs some controversy among provenance purists. Rightly so, as introducing plants to non-native areas can be fraught. Usually we simply avoid this risk. However, the genetic data paints a clear picture about the history of the silver daisy. This informs our assumptions and shows how humans have already altered the daisy’s past.

Research is also revealing that European settlers weren’t the first people to alter our landscape. “There’s really interesting [research] that’s coming out about aboriginal movement of plants across the landscape … trading seeds across the whole continent and planting …” Australia’s traditional owners have been trading, planting and translocating species for thousands of years, raising questions about the true definition of ‘local’ as we understand it. “What we’re trying to do is look at what would have happened historically in terms of gene flow and how can we reinstate that,” says Amelia.

While retrospective studies like this help us build our knowledge of a species, modern conservation demands an equal focus on the future. Climate modelling has allowed us to look at the changes South Australia may face this century, informing the way we choose planting sites for seedlings.

“We put a climate change lens on it. So, how are we going to secure the future of this species in a climate change scenario? … we were looking at the distribution of this plant across the state and the ideal climate

envelopes that are going to exist in the future, and then also how genetically resilient the plant is – how diverse is it genetically, what’s its adaptive capacity, how can it respond to changes in climate?”

Thanks to shifting climate zones, many areas that aren’t currently home to silver daisy plants will likely be viable in the future, while some current sites may no longer be ideal.

Using this research, we were able to identify two key areas that will be a stronghold for the silver daisy as the climate changes. The eastern slopes of the Mount Lofty Ranges and Eyre Peninsula both show great potential.

While planting sites have to meet additional criteria, the climate modelling has directly influenced

decision making about the project, says Amelia. “Originally we weren’t actually going to do anything on Eyre Peninsula … we assumed that wasn’t going to be a good area in the future … but we actually changed our plans in response to [the research] and put in 400 plants on Eyre Peninsula.”

Recent planting sites at Belvedere and Hartley also fall into the projected safe climate envelope. Other sites, like Tarcowie and Worlds End, have a less certain fate according to the models. We hope that the species may have enough chance to adapt, despite the rapid rate of change we’re experiencing.

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Continued learning and innovation are vital to all conservation work, especially at this uncertain time. We’re hoping to ensure research doesn’t stop with these recent plantings.

“We are investing in what they call ‘research infrastructure’,” says Amelia.

To this end, three provenances of silver daisy have been chosen to support potential research. Plants from Quorn, Hartley and Eyre Peninsula were planted together at each of those three locations. These plants will support research into whether greater genetic diversity improves recruitment (natural occurrence of new plants) and adaptation. “We’re setting it up in such a way that we can monitor what happens … we’re serious about monitoring our impact.”

The outcome of this project is not only the improved outlook for the plant itself, but an interesting conversation around the way we conduct land care in the face of a climate crisis. “[The project has] brought to light the conversation about provenance for threatened plants, because really we would have always [used] local provenance. It’s actually raised the question of why.”

We hope this research-based community action will bolster the resilience of the silver daisy by combining research, field work and community involvement.

“One of the things the project’s done really well is that we’ve engaged a lot of different groups and organisations … groups like Worlds End [Conservation] and Tarcowie [Landcare Group]. There’s a sense of ownership over those plants now. They’ve invested their own time and they will water them and they’ll look after them, which is great. We’ve got Forestry SA down in the south east … and the Milbrook Reservoir SA Water planting … it’s a genuine partnerships approach.”

You can read more about the effort to save the silver daisy in the quarterly publication of Australian Network for Plant Conservation - Australasian Plant Conservation (APC).  1) Olearia pannosa

WORLDS END STARTS A NEW STORY Phil Bagust, Worlds End Conservation member

O BELOW: The campsite at Worlds End. MIDDLE: Silver daisy seedling ready to plant.

RIGHT: Volunteers protect silver daisy seedlings with large mesh guards.

n the quiet road heading from Eudunda to Burra the back way, low ranges of hills rise to the left and right. The further you head north, the more rugged and green they become. In fact, this area – skirting Goyder’s famous line – contains some of the largest areas of remnant vegetation near Adelaide. Although the region has been grazed for over 150 years, much of this hills area is too rugged to clear and crop. What has been spared is a fascinating and rich mixture of northern Mount Lofty Ranges grasslands, mallee and arid woodland species, as well as important Indigenous and European

heritage. The area is also recognised as important by government, with two conservation parks and a council reserve in the local area.

The rapidly expanding private conservation movement is here too.

Worlds End Conservation is a group of volunteers who strive to preserve and enhance the stunning natural and cultural gifts of their two properties.

As you walk through the rocky gorges that border the hills – often to the raucous sounds of the resident choughs and kookaburras – you are drawn to stunning old growth woodlands that look like they belong hundreds of kilometres north. We find surprises all the time. Truly, the work

of understanding the richness of plant and animal species here has only just begun.

Part of this richness includes the silver daisy. The plants can be hard to find in the current drought, and are freely grazed by native and feral animals. It’s an unusual plant to find in such a dry area, but the more we look the more we find it, often high on south facing hillslopes and ridges, protected by old growth mallees.

This seems to be a pattern, at least in the Mount Lofty and Flinders ranges, with plants occurring in isolated, hilly spots. Does this mean they only like hillslopes, or just that the best land between the hills has just about all been cleared? One of our members recently found unexpected daisy plants on the isolated and arid Bunkers Range in the Northern Flinders. Nature will always surprise you.

Having the silver daisy on both properties meant that it could be used as a genetic seed resource for Trees For Life’s replanting project.

Worlds End members are very aware

of the marginal nature of the climate there, and the threat to the daisy population posed by a drying and warming future.

So, on the first weekend of June, around 20 people camped on both properties in an effort to put 120 daisy plants grown by Trees For Life into the ground. These comprised not only genetic specimens collected from our properties, but some collected from further north in the Flinders Ranges.

It will be a task for Worlds End members in the future to monitor and compare the progress of the plants on our properties to see if different provenance changes the resilience of the plants in this climate.

Planting 120 plants is more complicated than it sounds. First, we had to select sites that were accessible for watering in the first year that also had soil soft enough to dig holes.

We settled on two areas near natural clearings, sheltered by old growth mallees. We think that the plants benefit from water funnelled down mallee trunks during rain. Once the spot is found, someone digs a hole with an auger, then a shallow basin is made around the hole with a shovel, then the plant is freed from its tube and planted.

However, at that point the work has only just begun. Next comes the allimportant weed mat, then the green corflute tree guard, and then – and most importantly – we have to make a large wire cage to keep grazing animals at bay. Finally, each plant is

watered, tagged and GPS-located so we can keep track of its progress.

Within half a day the group had settled into a well-oiled routine so efficient that we finished ahead of schedule. This might seem a lot of work for one plant, and it was, but these are special plants. Now we all feel we have a stake in their ongoing success.

It makes a real difference when you have like-minded people moving towards a common goal, and when you’re doing it in truly beautiful surroundings. With the birds singing and the sun shining, it hardly seems like work at all. The best bit comes at dinner, when chairs are pulled around the campfire, food and coffee made, and the odd bottle of red is shared around. Then the silence descends and the brilliant stars of a cold midnorth evening show themselves. Times like this remind you what’s really important in life.

Maybe it was a good omen that only a week after planting the properties got their best rain for a long time, with between 20 and 30 millimetres gently falling. Further rain has followed.

We will continue to look over ‘our’ daisies and look forward to their first flowering, and we will continue to search for new species that might surprise us just as much as the daisies did.

We are part of the future of this land now, and that’s a really good feeling. 

For more information about Worlds End Conservation visit worldsendconservation.org.au 7

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FINNISS FAREWELLS A FRIEND Claire Bowman

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BELOW: Sue Wiseman, Trees For Life volunteer and Finniss Catchment Group member, carries a box of seedlings.

TOP, CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT:

Volunteers look out over the landscape beyond Finniss quarry; William Blessing, Finniss Catchment Group member; volunteers planting; a box of seedlings with tree guards and stakes.

he night cold still rises from the ground when we arrive at Finniss quarry. A small group of volunteers rub their hands together and talk quietly in the washed light. One by one we lift our feet to have the soles of our shoes sprayed with methylated spirits to stop water mould1 spreading to the bushcare site.

After the safety briefing, we walk slowly to the site, picking a path around the deep, slick ruts that 4WDs have left in the mud. The seedlings we carry will thrive in the wet weather, if it keeps up.

In the arms of the volunteers are 90 endangered silver daisy plants2, small and softly green. This morning, members of the Finniss Catchment Group join Bush For Life staff and volunteers to put the seedlings in the ground as a memorial to Finniss group member Martin D Vizjak.

As we follow the muddy path to the site, Sue Wiseman, a long standing member of both Trees For Life and the Finniss group, tells me about Martin.

Born in Melbourne in 1967, he grew

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up between country Victoria and Canberra until a university scholarship from the Japanese government took him to Tokyo to study economics.

There he met Yuko, a fellow economics student who would later become his wife.

We step over a fallen fence adorned with pink hi-vis safety ribbon that stops us from tripping. The planting site is bordered by tall eucalyptus on the southern side and scattered with native shrubs. Beyond the trees, rolling farmland is interrupted by occasional patches of bush. It’s quiet and bright, the perfect still morning to spend with fingers in the cold earth and backs soaking up the sun.

The recent rain has softened and darkened the soil; the tools of the volunteers cut the ground easily to form deep holes for the daisies. These cradles will ensure the young roots catch every precious drop of water that’s available as they grow.

I can so easily see what Martin and Yuko saw in this place. They were back and forth between Australia, Japan and Singapore until 2015, when they made plans for early retirement. From a home base in Rutherglen, Victoria, they embarked on an extended trip around Australia. Of all the astounding

and captivating Australian landscapes they visited, it was this particular corner of South Australia that captured their hearts. They bought 11 hectares at Mount Observation and Martin spent his final years caring for this amazing land. I understand their choice, with the midmorning sun now streaming through the tall eucalypts, lighting the bright spring tips of shrubs and saplings around us.

While the Finniss Catchment Group planters carefully pat in the soil around the seedlings, Bush For Life volunteers work to remove weeds in nearby bushland, to give natives like the daisy the best chance to thrive. This area would have once been home to the silver daisy and many other endemic native plants and animals. Now, the land around this bush site is predominantly farmland, but the patch we’re planting in is carefully tended by passionate bushcarers.

Every now and then throughout the morning, the conversation comes back to Martin. The volunteers recall the excitement that Martin and Yuko experienced when Ben Simon of the Goolwa to Wellington

Local Action Planning Association (GWLAP) discovered 160 remnant silver daisy bushes on their property.

Martin particularly loved this pretty yet hardy native. To an outsider, the huge love that Martin had for South Australia’s unique nature becomes readily apparent while we work.

It was that love that drew Martin and Yuko to Mount Observation, and led them to join the local weeds working group and the GWLAP nursery group. They quickly formed connections with the other landholders in the area, becoming valued and hardworking friends of the community and the bush. Today, as many hands put new life into the ground, the volunteers and the landscape seem unified in celebrating the life of a dedicated bushcarer and friend.

By the time we stop midmorning for steaming thermoses of coffee, trail mix and thick slices of homemade cake, all 90 plants are watered in and sheltered against the elements by tree guards. After taking care of hunger and thirst, the volunteers walk together up to the disused quarry,

I can so easily see what Martin and Yuko saw in this place.

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which has begun to be reclaimed by the bush. Native bees hum across patches of acacia, and eucalyptus saplings line the roadside. I look out over the neighbouring farmland scattered with remnant patches of natives and watch from a distance as the bushcarers chat, occasionally pointing out towards the horizon. I move closer and Sue gestures at a distant hill, which she tells me is her own plot of land. Towering eucalypts stand beside a telephone pole, nature and modern life both silhouetted against the sky.

We return to the site and pack up the last of the shovels and picks. The light green tree guards cluster together amongst the scrub, protecting their precious charges.

The volunteers seem quietly pleased with their effort. One day, next year or the year after that, a new patch of big, white daisy flowers will decorate this South Australian bushland, and Martin’s friends and family will have a living, blooming, unique tribute to his life.  1) Phytophthora spp. 2) Olearia pannosa ssp. pannosa

SEEDING SUCCESS AND A SEA CHANGE Claire Bowman

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s this past winter set in, the land around Blanchetown hadn’t seen good rain for five years. The Direct Seeding team were waiting to start a project that had been due for completion in 2018. They were at the mercy of the weather, a dry spell that wouldn’t let up in the arid landscape where the Sturt Highway crosses the Murray. Hundreds of kilos of seed sat in storage, waiting for the weather to change.

Half way through June, clouds began to gather, fat with the promise of rain. By 15 June, 30 millimetres had fallen. After more than 17 years on the job, Program Managers David Hein and Dennis Hayles recognised this modest soaking for what it was: a call to action.

In the fortnight that followed, with their numbers bolstered by contractors and volunteers, the team completed the biggest direct seeding project we have ever undertaken at Trees For Life. As a part of the government’s 20 Million Trees project we completed the seeding for Landcare Australia, one of three national providers of 20 Million Trees.

A total of 750 kilograms of handcollected seed from two dozen local native species was taken out of storage and carted to the site. Dennis, David, three other staff members, three contractors and three generous volunteers put the rest of their lives on hold for two weeks to make the most of this rare opportunity. They worked for 12 days straight across four private properties. “We decided we had everything ready and we’d just hit the ground running,” says Dennis. “We went up with everything we had.”

“Everything we had” was quite a fleet; three tractors operating three V blade direct seeders, a four wheel drive ute operating a disc direct

seeder and two extra support utes were used day after day under the dark clouds. By the end of the twelfth day, 1,500 kilometres of rows were seeded on what used to be the Portee Station, between Swan Reach and Blanchetown. A further 75 kilometres had gone in at Steinfeld, to the west of Blanchetown.

Then, with 1,575 kilometres of seed freshly sewn in the damp ground, Dennis hung up his hat at Trees For Life. After more than 17 years of revegetation work, this final sowing of long-stored seed seemed the perfect way to go out. “We finally got it in the ground, where it’s meant to be,” says Dennis.

However, Dennis knows he’s not leaving a sure thing behind. Despite the sense of resolution that follows this kind of huge effort, there remains a level of risk, a daunting unknown. If the weather continues to be kind then the seeds will do well. If the harsh summers of the last five years repeat, their future is less certain.

“That area is historically a very low rainfall area, but the rainfall patterns are changing, arguably through climate change, and they were just terribly dry years with very, very hot dry springs and summers ... this year has been much kinder. We had good rain before [the seeding] and we’ve had some nice sprinkles after, so we’re just hoping that bodes well. El Niño is in a pause pattern so if everything just goes even average … we should get a good to excellent result.”

Though the weather dictates the time to sow, not everything comes down to luck. Experience and many, many years of work have gone into ensuring the seeds have the best chance to establish. “We’ve been working for 17 years in the Murray Darling basin. We’re using equipment that we have modified and improved 11

Dennis Hayles, ready for a sea change.

always been busy, we’ve always had something to do … if we haven’t been doing on-ground work, planting, carrying out weed or pest control, we’ve been out collecting seed, we’ve been out monitoring, talking to landholders, trying to procure grants …”

That work has taken Dennis, David, their team and volunteers around a huge area of South Australia. From north of Renmark near the New South Wales border, over to Eyre Peninsula and down to the bottom of the Fleurieu and Yorke Peninsulas, they’ve worked with landholders and partner organisations to get hundreds of native species in the ground.

“It’s just been a privilege to work with the staff and the volunteers who have really been important in our program – they have supported us in seed collection, in weed control, in all aspects of our Direct Seeding program. They’ve just jumped in whenever we’ve asked without question. We’ve taken them away for three, four, five day trips and they’ve just always lined up and wanted to be there.” Dennis says what keeps the volunteers on board, and what has kept him around so long, is the way the landscape comes back to life.

“The rewards of what you see — the outcomes that you achieve — just keep you coming back, year after year.”

Humans aren’t the only ones to reap those rewards. “A part of the deal with the 20 Million Trees was to

address the declining species of the area, which includes such things as malleefowl, the regent parrot [and] the red lord whistler,” says Dennis.

The seeds used include upper, mid and lower storey species: eucalyptus gum trees, tea trees, wattle trees and bushes, as well as some smaller shrubs and other lower storey plants.

With so many Australian native animals losing their homes, this habitat-building approach is essential.

According to Dennis, this will “provide a much more resilient ecosystem and habitat for the species that are in lots of trouble.”

Saving these species and keeping the bushland of South Australia resilient is a collaborative effort.

Dennis says that the landholders he’s worked with are “pivotal and critical in this whole process.”

Without their desire to get the natives onto their properties, there would be nothing he could do. “They care, and they have the impetus to come to us and say, ‘Listen, I want to make this place better.’ Then it’s up to us … we’ve got an opportunity to help them out because we’ve got the means and the wherewithal to be able to do that.”

“A really great part of my job has been working with landholders.

And then coming back, sometimes

through a period of difficult times when they’ve thought that the project was not going to be successful.

They’ve come back five or six or even seven years later and said, ‘Oh, wow, you won’t believe what’s happening on my block! You won’t believe what I saw the other day, you know, I saw a series of blue wrens’ … or ‘I saw these birds that I’ve never seen before’ … that gives you a lot of heart that what we’re doing is having beneficial results, not only for the landholder but for the environment and for the species that really rely on there to be more bushland.”

It’s hard to quantify the impact that Dennis has had on the South Australian landscape and the landholders that he’s worked with throughout his time with us. From his work to innovate new methods of seed collection and planting, to his many thousands of hours of physical work, to the easy camaraderie he brings to the organisation and the strong relationships he has built with people out on the land, he has been both pragmatic and passionate about our mission. As we bid him farewell after this most recent huge effort, we are certain of one thing: this sea change is well-deserved. 

It’ll take years up there for the landscape to really change visually, but I think it will be a very different place in 10 years’ time.

over the years to give the best results in that really dry land.”

Those results may not be visible for many years. “It’ll take years up there for the landscape to really change visually, but I think it will be a very different place in 10 years’ time.”

Where Dennis will be when that decade rolls around seems uncertain.

For now, he will head north to explore the much wetter landscape of Hervey Bay on the Fraser Coast of Queensland. He says that whether he continues with this type of work or puts his skills to use some other way is yet to be determined. “I have a few past lives. I was a diesel mechanic and a farmer by trade, and was just always interested in the environment … 17 and a half years ago [I] landed a job with Trees For Life and have been here ever since.” Dennis is sure about one thing, however. “This is not a retirement … it’s a sea change” His 17 years have seen many successes, much hard work, some hard weather and many, many seeds.

“It’s all gone very quickly. And I think it’s gone very quickly because I’ve

Storm clouds rolling in over the seeding tractors.

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WHATS ON

BUSH FOR LIFE EVENTS

National Biodiversity Month

Sep

National Wattle Day

1 Sep

National Threatened Species Day

7 Sep

If you’re interested in becoming a volunteer on one of our Bush For Life sites, or would like to learn more about managing your own bushland, come along to a Bushcare Workshop. Workshops are free for members.

Spring ABC Gardeners’ Market, Collinswood

12 Oct

BUSHCARE WORKSHOPS

Board Nominations

Close 5pm, 24 Sep

Victor Harbor

12 Sep

Mitcham

12 Oct

AGM

24 Oct

Pt Noarlunga

1 Nov

End of Year Party

27 Nov

ADVANCED BUSHCARE WORKSHOPS

TREE SCHEME AND NURSERY Acacia pycnantha seedling.

SEED COLLECTION WORKSHOPS

W

ith the summer seed collection season fast approaching, we’re looking for volunteers to help collect seed for our native seedbank.

Seedbank Manager Rohan Cleeves runs regular workshops, which have recently had a revamp to better cater for members. We’ve separated the current seed collection workshop into two: introductory and advanced. To become a seedbank volunteer you’ll need to attend both. The workshops are free for all Trees For Life members.

See our website for course content and see our calendar opposite for upcoming dates. 

Paul helps Donna choose seedlings at our annual plant sale.

NURSERY SUMMER SOWN ORDERS

A

ustralian native seedlings love summer. That means it’s the main growing period for our Westwood Nursery, which raises up to 200 different native plant species every year to help landholders, local government and conservation groups meet their revegetation goals. We grow herbs, grasses, ground covers, shrubs and trees from across the state, helping South Australians create homes for native creatures and bring landscapes to life.

If you’re not sure where to start, the nursery team would love to share expert advice on species selection.

Our years of experience and specialist knowledge mean we can suggest the perfect plant for your project or property. We’re also able to grow rare and threatened species for projects.

We’ll collect seed and cuttings suitable to your local provenance, or will collect seed from your own property by request, at cost. Have a chat to our friendly team and see what we can do to help.

We grow a minimum of 50 seedlings to order at a very competitive price. The deadline for summer sown orders is 30 November.

Please get in touch earlier if you have specialist provenance requirements. 

Spring Australian Plant Society Sale, Wayville 12 – 13 Oct

GROW FOR GOOD

You’re invited to celebrate the contribution and achievements of our Trees For Life community. This year’s event will again be held at the Thebarton Community Centre on Wednesday 27 November, 5:307:30pm. Please RSVP by 22 November.

Thank You Tree Awards will be presented on the night. We encourage you to nominate a fellow member to recognise their contribution.

Tree Scheme is recruiting. We need keen volunteer growers to raise native seedlings this summer. Become a part of our award winning program and we’ll match you with a landholder who’s ready to get South Australian plants in the ground and create homes for our native species.

20 Sep

Introduction to Plant Identification**

Stirling

26 Sep

Introduction to Plant Identification**

Stirling

28 Sep

Introduction to Grass Identification**

Adelaide

31 Oct

Adelaide

2 Nov

17 Oct – 2 Nov (Thu, Fri & Sat)

Materials Collection Day for Tree Scheme Growers

17 Nov

Nursery Sown Orders Due

30 Nov

Advanced Seed Collection Workshop (Adelaide Hills)

9 Oct

Introduction to Grass Identification**

Introduction to Seed Collection Workshop (Barossa Valley)

20 Nov

BUSH ACTION TEAM DAYS

Introduction to Seed Collection Workshop (Northern Adelaide Hills)

4 Dec

Advanced Seed Collection Workshop (Black Hill)

11 Dec

THANKS TO OUR SUPPORTERS…

Auldana

5 Sep

Lynton

8 Nov

Blackwood

7 Sep*

Tanunda

12 Nov

Craigburn Farm

11 Sep

Finniss

14 Nov

Upper Hermitage

13 Sep

Hallett Cove

16 Nov

Kersbrook

19 Sep

Coromandel Valley 20 Nov

Fairview Park

1 Oct

Eden Hills

22 Nov

Wasley

3 Oct

Mount Barker

26 Nov

Nangkita

5 Oct

Hindmarsh Valley 28 Nov

One Tree Hill

9 Oct

Clarendon

30 Nov

Finniss

11 Oct

Lower Mitcham

4 Dec

Heathfield

17 Oct

Leawood Gardens 7 Dec

Dingabledinga

19 Oct

Echunga

10 Dec

Cherry Gardens

23 Oct

Encounter Bay

12 Dec

Ironbank

25 Oct

Hillbank

14 Dec

Greenhill

31 Oct

Hillbank

18 Dec

Hallett Cove

3 Nov

Belair

20 Dec

Belair

6 Nov

*Threatened Species Day **Presented by Ann Prescott, botanist and author of ‘It’s Blue With Five Petals’.

GET YOUR VOLUNTEER GROWING GEAR Most depots will open their gates on 17 November this year for Tree Scheme volunteer growers to collect everything they need to raise native seedlings. If you have registered to grow and haven’t heard from us by early October, give us a call.

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Adelaide

Volunteer Grower Workshops (bookings essential)

WHAT’S HAPPENING AT TREES FOR LIFE? END OF YEAR PARTY

Brushcutter Use and Maintenance

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In the spotlight OUR PEOPLE

“I’ve volunteered for many organisations before but struggled to ever feel like I’ve actually made a lasting and meaningful impact. With Bush For Life I can see the meaningful difference I am making, and as long as volunteers just like me keep at it, it will be a lasting one too.”

Jason Cullen, Bush For Life volunteer (and his dog George)

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