August 7 marks the beginning of National Landcare Week. To celebrate, Mid Lachlan Landcare (MLL) is launching its new online instruction video, ‘How to Build a Paddock Tree Guard’.
‘Every week is considered Landcare Week by Mid Lachlan Landcare,’ says coordinator Tracee Burke. ‘But for this Landcare Week, we are celebrating all our region’s tree planting achievements and we invite district residents to share their tree stories with us.
‘Trees are so essential’ says MLL’s Education Officer, Trudi Refshauge, who recently spoke to all the Year five and six students at Cowra Council’s Tree Day. The students told me, ‘trees are important for oxygen, firewood and koalas. At the end of my session, they understood our native gum trees support far more beneficial and complex ecosystems, involving native animals, fungi, flora and agriculture.
MLL’s Education Officer, Trudi Refshauge, speaks to Year five and six students at Cowra Council’s Tree Day.
‘The first thing students did when they arrived, was to run to the base of the largest eucalypt tree in the Nature Playground, depositing their bags and drink bottles for safe keeping. I told them that turtles, birds, marsupials, and lizards use trees in a similar way; to navigate and seek shelter and refuge.
Trudi Refshauge shows students how our native gum trees support many beneficial and complex ecosystems, involving native animals, fungi, flora and agriculture through her game ‘DINGO’.
‘District landholders are planting trees across our network and are noticing the important work trees do, functioning as natural pumps and air conditioning units. They tell me, in frosts the air is warmer, in scorching heat, the air is cooler. In areas of waterlogging, a chain of paddock trees can stabilise soil. Research from the Australian National University claims these native paddock trees and shelter belts encourage native insects that protect grasses and crops from harmful and damaging insects.
MLL is currently supporting landholders to plant new paddock trees, protect established old trees and improve habitat and connectivity for the Superb Parrot.
Scattered paddock trees are critical to the Superb Parrot’s survival, says Coordinator Tracee Burke. ‘For a range of reasons, farm trees, including ones that are more than 100 years old, aren’t being replaced when they die. We encourage all landholders to protect old paddock trees and plant new ones.
Funding has come from the NSW Government’s Saving Our Species (SOS) Program and fourteen landholders in Cowra, Canowindra, Cargo, Gooloogong, Manildra, Newbridge and Woodstock (all within the Mid Lachlan Landcare boundary) have been successful in receiving rolls of steel cage mesh, fence posts and native tube stock.
This YouTube video is available to anyone needing help to build a paddock tree cage.
‘Some of our newer landholders needed additional support with the cage construction process so we were grateful our volunteer member, Gordon Refshauge, was willing to help us make a video on his paddock tree cage construction technique,’ said Burke.
Tell us about your tree growing stories; contact midlachlanlandcare@gmail.com
Mid Lachlan Landcare 