Australia Bushfire Recovery Continues!

Dear Valued Donor

An essential part of rainforest restoration is the maintenance of the project site after the saplings have been planted. The seed bank stored in the soil is likely to contain many weed species that have been brought in via bird droppings.

Our team has visited the projects twice since September to weed the site. This is done using a combination of brush cutting and using herbicide. The saplings were also fed a broad spectrum fertiliser to ensure their continued growth.

The plants are healthy and the sites are performing well. Further maintenance is planned for the next quarter.

With reference to the previous project report from April 2022, the project is still in a paused status due to the flood events from earlier this year. The ground remains saturated and the planting sites are consequently difficult to access. 

Significant flooding in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales occurred on and after 28 February 2022. This has unfortunately prevented any further activity happening on the project sites since this time.

The links below demonstrate the severity of the flooding. The power, flood height and damage is far worse than anything previously recorded. Areas burnt in the 2019 bushfires were particulary affected. The reduced ground cover and damage to root systems causes instability in the soil, leading to landslisp when the soil is saturated. This highlights further the need for this project to remediate the areas damaged in the 2019 bushfires.

Access to the project sites has been restricted due to road closures and landslips. The majority of vehicular access has been restored to the area.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBpCHo20Sj8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMPjWgoTa7k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWaNJxEoq7A

Significant flooding in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales occurred on and after 28 February 2022. This has unfortunately prevented any further activity happening on the project sites since the last report in January 2022.

The links below demonstrate the severity of the flooding. The power, flood height and damage is far worse than anything previously recorded. Areas burnt in the 2019 bushfires were particulary affected. The reduced ground cover and damage to root systems causes instability in the soil, leading to landslisp when the soil is saturated. This highlights further the needfor this project to remediate the areas damaged in the 2019 bushfires.

Access to the project sites has been restricted due to road closures and landslips. The local Council is working to restore access to the project sites. We expect to resume work in May or June 2022.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBpCHo20Sj8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMPjWgoTa7k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWaNJxEoq7A

A huge thank you to our supporters! We have successfully raised $8752 within three months with your generosity.

What now? Well, our on-ground work must coincide with the seasons. Living in the subtropics of eastern Australia, we have fluctuations between hot hot summers, wet seasons, and cooler months. These seasonal changes affects how our on-ground team conduct their work to ensure the areas of forest we recover, the weeds we remove, and the trees that emerge from this restoration have the best chance recovering, surviving and thriving.

Since November, we have been working with the on-ground team, landholders and internally with our conservation program team to plan how these funds will be used in 2022. Planning has involved site identification, landholder communication and consultation, timeline and budgeting.

We have set our eyes on a burnt site in an area of the Byron Shire. This site was severely damaged although luckily the landholders and house was spared. Our team conducted site visits in December before the intense heat begun. Landholder consultations went smoothly and all approvals have been met. We have planned the timing of the first recovery activities of weed removal. 8752 square meters will be regenerated which will recover nearly 8000 trees!

This work, using the funds raised on this platform, will begin in February 2022. Stay tuned!