On a fresh spring morning, I made the early drive out to Bombala in the Monaro region of NSW, 80km south of Cooma. Feeling more at home in my old Bravo Ute than I usually do in Canberra, I arrived at my destination, the Monaro Native Tree Nursery (MNTN). Situated on a property in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains, I was met by nursery manager and my guide for the day, Annie Platts. I was instantly impressed by the diverse and extensive level of vegetation on the property, spruced up by the much-needed showers from the days before.

I first heard about MNTN whilst researching the Monaro dieback. Sources had listed the business as being a key provider of Australian native plants for revegetation efforts in the dieback zone. After contacting the nursery, Annie agreed to take me along to a nearby property that had reached out to the nursery for their revegetation service. This caught my interest as being a great opportunity to experience revegetation on agricultural land.

We journeyed to the nearby property where we performed a site assessment for the revegetation corridor that the owners wanted to plant. This included surveying the proposed site, taking soil samples for testing, collecting local provenance seed, and taking cuttings from the native plants. These cuttings and seeds would then be taken back to the nursery and grown in their greenhouse until they reached a certain size. After this they would be grown outside for another period of time in order to harden. This process aims to increase the resistance of the plants before they are placed into the ground.

Annie explained to me the importance of spending time to properly plan for a revegetation effort. It can be of great benefit to the farmers; increasing the quality of their land, providing shade and shelter for livestock, stabilising soil, and reducing soil salinity (Durrough et al., 2008). We discussed all this information with the owners at the end of the assessment, ensuring they were aware of these benefits if they managed the area effectively. This is a very important point as the attitude of farmers entering agri-environmental schemes ultimately decides the outcomes achieved (Ahnström et al., 2009).

Here comes the rain again

Upon returning to MNTN, we spent the afternoon planting trees on the property. Trying to beat the showers rolling in over the hills, we managed to make a good dent in what was a planned forest patch and connecting corridor. It was satisfying work, doing my small part, knowing of the potential increases to biological diversity that could eventuate (Law and Dickman, 1998).

I asked Annie about any future plans on the property and she took me to another paddock where they were planning a new connecting corridor. These have been found to facilitate continuity between populations of small mammals by providing a dispersal pathway between patches and allowing for gene flow between populations (Bennett, 1990). Annie also told me of the abundance of bird species that would eventually utilise this habitat.

Riding shotgun

It was a great experience to see such effort being put into conservation on private land. I would like to thank Annie and the MNTN for sharing this valuable experience with me.

Damon Mudge u5563883

References:

Ahnström, J., Höckert, J., Bergeå, H., Francis, C., Skelton, P. and Hallgren, L. (2009). Farmers and nature conservation: What is known about attitudes, context factors and actions affecting conservation?. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, 24(01), pp.38-47.

Bennett, A. (1990). Habitat corridors and the conservation of small mammals in a fragmented forest environment. Landscape Ecology, 4(2), pp.109-122.

Durrough, J., Stol, J. and McIntyre, S., 2008. Biodiversity in the paddock: a land managers guide, Future Farm Industries CRC. Available from https://publications.csiro.au/rpr/download?pid=procite:dc9b10fe-5405-4ab5-8c5f-ca49c4c5ad87&dsid=DS1. Accessed 21 September 2018.

LAW, B. and DICKMAN, C. (1998). Biodiversity and Conservation, 7(3), pp.323-333.