Plantings under adverse conditions

Planting over the winter has been minimised because of the frost possibility and eventually a few frosts occurred late in the very warm winter but little damage was done to seedlings. Grazing damage by animals, probably hares is a problem though.

Some of our winter plantings in the corridor

 Because of the dry conditions in spring no normal plantings have been possible but we have experimented with strengthing the riparian vegetation by planting near the waters edge in areas of moist soil from seepage - which are often found below a bank slump as seepage is often associated with slumps. This planting was carried out from a dinghy. Species planted were Lomandra Longiflolia, Melaleuca Viminalis ( Weeping Bottlebrush), Casuarina Cunninghamiana (River She-oak) , Melaleuca Bracteata (Black Tea-tree) and a few Waterhousea Floribunda.

Ross and Terry, our regular volunteer, ready to start planting

A small slump with some Lomandra planted at the toe of the bank

One of our hopeful planted seedlings in the foreground but notice the number of naturally occurring ti tree seedlings above which have established in the hard clay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The value of Lomandra - the tuft in the mid top is still alive atop of an eroded root column about 500mm above the ground surface. It has withstood many floods and is still hanging on!

 Some pictures of the working bee held by GMA members on Sunday 7th July to clear the debris from one of the landholders riparian fence which had been damaged and covered with lots of sticks, grass and other rubbish. This will allow new plantings to take place on river to enhance the koala corridor.

A pedestrian crossing the Koala Corridor

Some of the team in action

Some damage to the river bank

 (with an infestation of cat's claw in the background)

Piles of debris like this were common in this area

Restanding a washed out fence post

Treating a "mature" Cat's Claw infestation on the Koala Corridor

One of the landholders on the Koala Corridor has an advanced infestation of Cat's Claw Creeper and while they are not prepared at this stage to increase their riparian fencing area they have allowed us to treat the infestation of CCC. These photos show just how massive cat's claw vines can get, unfortunately we can't get any images of the damage they are doing in the canopy.

I am sure these trees are very grateful for the Federal DAFF  and BMRG funding which make the Cat's Claw control efforts of GMA much more effective.

A bare sandy area covered with Cat's Claw pods from above

A small native tree with four cats claw vines climbing up it and it was still alive ! (Felt marker for scale)

 

A treated CCC stump

Some more vines treated by our contractor

More trees planted and tubers potted up

Another 60 trees were planted today. Lots of blue gums and some narrow leafed iron bark.
That brings our total number of trees planted to more than 400!

Another planning walk for Love Mary day

The Mary River Koala corridor project has been progressing steadily - the trees we planted in September are also going well, weed control has been ongoing and planning for our community event is in full swing.

Our community event is called Love Mary Day and it will take place on Sunday 17 February 2013. The event includes stalls, speakers on many things to do with the river and biodiversity and an interpretive walk along the riparian zone.

Juanita and Glenda had already done some work on planning the interpretive walk. Yesterday a few more of us joined them to further map out some of the features that we will highlight on the walk. Glenda also collected seeds for inclusion in seed balls that will be made on the day.

On our walk we saw turtles, stormbirds, water dragons and loads of interesting features. We also collected some Cats Claw for weaving baskets.

First trees planted in the Koala Corridor on World Rivers Day

On Sunday 30th September, 81 trees including six different koala food species were planted in the Koala Corridor.Thanks to everyone who came along to lend a hand.

Arriving in the corridor - this area will soon be fenced off

Planting in some preprepared ground

A family affair

A momentous occassion! The wire is cut between two neighbouring koala corridor properties to join up the corridor. Notice the new fence on the other side.

The whole gang getting stuck into the planting

Planting on the second property. 

Each tree was marked with a bamboo stick

 and mulched with some cardboard

We also planted blackbean seeds within the riparian zone

Out of this first batch of 150 koala trees, we still have to plant another 19 trees for the second corridor property and 50 trees for the third corridor property. Fingers crossed for some rain so that we can plant these trees and also to give a boost to the trees we planted next year.

At our GMA meeting we also proposed at date for our community event as part of the koala corridor - we are calling it Love Mary day which will take place on 16 February 2013. More detail to come. If you'd like to help us organise the event, please let us know!

New riparian fence

Fencing commenced for the tree planting area along the Mary River at Tiaro. 

A 360 m fence has been constructed that creates a riparian corridor approximately 40-50m in width. That makes a continuous fenced riparian zone of over 1.5km.

How rivers work and the implications for riparian restoration

On 11 March 2012, we had Peter McAdam, stream geomorphologist and Healthy Habitats/Land for Wildlife Officer at the Mary River Catchment Coordination Committee join us for our outdoor meeting. Peter gave a very informative presentation about "How Rivers work and the implications for Riparian Restoration".

You can watch excerpts from his presentation below.

Part 1 is about how to defining a river. 

Part 2 follows directly from Part 1 and in this, Peter focuses on the way rivers change. In particular he identifies some of the changes that have occurred as a result of European settlement.

You can view higher resolution images of these videos on GMA's Youtube Channel.

We hope to follow up with some surveys of the river bed to get a better understanding of what is happening in this section of the Mary River.