Another Ripping Site!

John Hamilton’s dozer ripping the SW facing slope.

The 6.3 ha Granter site was fenced back in Feb 2013 and now it’s being prepared for planting. John Hamilton’s dozer creates three rip-lines up to 500mm deep with each pass. These rip-lines will allow newly planted seedlings to quickly get their roots deep into the rocky ground, as well as capture and store rainfall that may otherwise have run-off (see below for additional comments). It’s a strategy that, if carried out well, has few disadvantages and can give seedlings a big advantage in their first few years.

King’s taking shape.

NAB volunteers at King’s.

Planting has begun on another of our projects sites. Susan & Joel King have a long, narrow 6.2 ha  site that was fenced last November  and has now had about half it’s 1000 seedlings planted. As well as seedlings, planted on the steeper slopes (image at left and below), there’ll be direct seeding on the upper slope and ridge-line a little later in the season.

All indigenous seedlings planted at this and all project sites are grown locally, from seed collected in the district. Twenty-five different species were planted during this session.

Seedlings planted included (@ 20% canopy species):

Wattles

Acacia verticillata              Prickly moses
A. mearnsii                          Black wattle
A. dealbata                         Silver wattle
A. genistifolia                     Spreading wattle
A. verniciflua                      Varnish wattle
A. leprosa                            Cinnamon wattle
A. acinacea                         Gold dust wattle
A. implexa                           Lightwood
A. paradoxa                        Hedge wattle

Volunteers begin planting

Revegetation got under way at the ‘Hidden Valley’ site on the 26th of April, with a group of six volunteers from the ANZ bank. The ANZ volunteers, assisted by Chris Cobern (Upper Goulburn Landcare Network Fire Recovery Officer),  landholders Terry and Janet Hubbard and myself, managed to plant 230 seedlings at the top of the valley – made easier as a result of  John Hamilton’s precision ripping. Surprisingly, some of the rip lines had moist soil about 150mm down, despite almost non-existent rainfall. We would normally not commence planting in this country until June, but as the volunteers were available we decided to start. All seedlings were planted with a soil wetting crystal and were watered in with a litre of water per plant.