Plantations of the future

Do you yearn for a sensible and impartial world where choices are made for the good of all life, and not just for the benefit of a few very rich and egoistic Homo sapiens? I certainly do.

I also yearn for good news stories about the environment and information about how we can move forward step by step in a way that supports all life in the future.

I’m excited about the possibility of humans finding a connection once again with nature, in a supportive, non competitive relationship, in both rural and urban Australian environments.
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In light of these musings, here is an abridged version of an article published in the Victorian Landcare magazine (edition 89).

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Native vegetation occupying as much as 30% of rural properties can be achieved without loss of productivity.

Plant and connect

Plantations on farms have the potential to be much more than windbreaks and shelter belts. They can provide a significant portion of a rural family’s diversified income while being part of a vegetation network that sustains local biodiversity. They can also be places where farmers connect with wildlife as they maintain and harvest diverse crops of marketable products.

On a national scale, if we are to protect and restore our biodiversity assets and sequester substantial volumes of carbon, future farm biodiversity plantations will need to be much wider (50m+) with native vegetation occupying as much as 30% of rural properties. Researchers have shown that this can be achieved without the loss of productivity.

These wider plantations are important conservation measures because they suit the spiral foraging patterns of birdlife. They also provide more protected farm shelter, critical to the survival of many of Australia’s iconic wildlife that are presently facing extinction.

This vision offers a win-win, where landowners provide for their own needs through improved shelter and a variety of marketable products. This shift in rural landscape strategic planting also ensures the recovery of the flora and fauna that sustain the health and lifestyles of the broader community.

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‘Biodiversity influences the health, wealth and resilience of the land. It is not something that is found only in patches of native vegetation, it is all around us.’
David Salt et al., 2004

Plant diversity is assured by including a minimum of 7 families

Sustainable ‘biorich’ design
 
There are a number of important design principles that help build diversity, longevity and resilience into plantations. Here are some general principles;
 

• Include a diversity of local plants. These are chosen from at least 7 families, 10 genera and 20 species. This ensures a richness of habitat, food and nesting materials. Up to 20% non-local, non-invasive species are planted for income and products for the farm. This doesn’t diminish biodiversity values and makes wider plantations a lot more economically appealing

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Creating vegetation layers mimics nature. (Hover and click to enlarge the image)

• Create a layered plantation structure by planting same species groups. The smaller plants, like shrubs and tussock grasses, are grouped in larger numbers (up to 50) and the canopy trees in smaller groups of 5-10 to allow for natural selection and the potential for future timber harvesting.
  
  Same species grouping provides better habitat and more food for small insectivorous birds, plus superior pollination and seed production. It also suits the inclusion of small forestry plots, shrubs for cut flowers and other plant based products for the market

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• Include 60% shrubs in plantations. These provide the low, dense habitat and shelter that is often absent in existing plantations that are usually dominated by too many tall trees

‘We came to understand the importance of insects in building the health of ecosystems, and hence the desirability of smaller trees, shrubs and ground-level vegetation to attract those insects, together with small birds. The key appeared to be a continuous energy resource through an uninterrupted and easily accessible nectar supply and good, dense protective cover at shrub level.’

Richard Weatherly, 2020 ‘A brush with Birds, Paintings and stories from the wild.’

Vegetation links to wetlands multiplies the number of bird species

• Make vegetation links with wetlands, waterways, remnant vegetation, forestry and other farm plantings. This enhances wildlife movement for insect pest management and assists symbiotic fungi (mycorrhiza) to re-establish and support native plant growth, particularly when links can be made to remnant sites and roadside reserves 

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Paddock trees planted in line-of-site allows wildlife to migrate

• Re-establishing paddock trees
• at 25m to100m spacing 
• (this the approximates 'line-of-site' for wildlife or distance they will consider safe to travel across open landscapes), to support migrating birds and insects. Scattered paddock trees also provide essential shade in a warming climate and very effective wind shelter similar to boundary plantations.

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​Barwon Ridge Winery

 ‘The area has been recreated to become both a place of exuberant biodiversity and
uplifting reflection.’
Geoff Anson, Barwon Ridge winery

A shrub layer of Hop Goodenia under form pruned Spotted Gum

​It was a warm, sunny Sunday in early spring and I was helping Geoff and Joan Anson form-prune some of their clumps of forestry trees, many of them well over 6m tall in just four years. The layered woodland they had created by grouping indigenous shrubs and understorey next to majestic form-pruned Spotted Gums, Corymbia maculata, and Red Ironbarks, Eucalyptus sideroxylon, was both picturesque and productive. They had allowed convenient access for pruning and harvest by grouping their forestry trees along the edge of a natural access track that snaked its way through the plantation’s interior.
 
They had structured the 4.5 hectare plantation to shelter their award-winning vineyard from the damaging west winds and to link with earlier two and three row boundary plantings. The many small birds that lived in the woodland’s clumps of shrubs formed an integral part of Geoff and Joan’s insect management strategy.

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‘Pushing aside thick Wattle branches I am presented with a flock of sweeping, squawking Black Cockatoos, perching precariously in the trees and feeding noisily on Pin Cushion Hakea seed. It’s a stunning difference to the weed-infested paddock five years previously.’
Geoff Anson

Otway biodynamic farm

‘I am always learning and pursuing my lifelong interest in farming systems that complement and support nature.’
​Andy Marshall, Otway biodynamic farm

Forestry plantations connect the property to adjacent reserves which enables movement around the property of insectivorous birds

Biodynamics is a system of farming that focuses on using natural processes. Developed by Rudolf Steiner in 1924, the central feature of biodynamics is the holistic view of a farm as an organism that is self-sustaining through its self-generated resources. Plant and animal diseases are considered a symptom of a problem with the whole ‘farm organism.’
 
For Andy Marshall, a second generation cropping and sheep farmer who grew up
working outdoors, valuing self-reliance and loving nature, the philosophy and practice of biodynamics was a comfortable fit.
 
Andy and his partner Linda Scott, now practice biodynamics and integrated farming at Gerangamete in Victoria’s Otway Ranges. The farm has very wide adjoining roadside reserves and a neighbouring bush block that is linked with their own mixed biodiversity plantations and agroforestry. After just seven years, their bird count is well over 50 species, many of these live in the adjacent reserves and use his new plantations to move safely around their property eating insects.
 
They have applied their biodynamic philosophy to growing vegetable crops like garlic and vegetable seed, though a large orchard and a chestnut grove are also flourishing.
 
Significant corridors of indigenous plants and forestry species like Blackwood, Acacia malanoxylon, Silky oak, Grevillea robusta and Spotted Gum have been added to provide shelter, maximise biodiversity and to produce high-quality timber. These various components have made their biodynamic farm an exciting and vibrant farm enterprise that continues to evolve.

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‘I believe that a farm is a symbiosis of the land and the farmer, so that each benefits and matures from the relationship.’
​Andy Marshall

​Sustainable biorich design

Sustainable biorich design can effectively restore biodiversity to rural and urban areas while providing a significant income and the opportunity for people to make a rewarding and emotionally important connection with nature.

​How to design and plant biorich landscapes is fully described  in ‘Recreating the Country. Ten key principles of designing sustainable landscapes.’