Yarrilinks Plantout @ Boolite!
Drone photography in winter 2023 by Cobba Harrison
On a blustery day in July we had volunteers out at Boolite to revegetate 3ha on private land, hosted by Minyip Landcare Group. Yarrilinks often works under the concept of biolinks, where fragmented but ecologically significant sites are reconnected through revegetation, providing habitat and movement corridors for native flora and fauna. This site ticks the box, linking a Trust for Nature covenanted remnant woodland with native vegetation along the Dunmunkle Creek.
We had about 28 volunteers brave the windy weather to join us from Horsham, Dimboola, Rupanyup, Warracknabeal, Wal Wal and the lcoal area. While it’s a bit smaller than some of the previous Yarrilinks plantouts, it was a great warmup after a few quiet years.
Our host landholder, Daryl, did the site preparation and fencing, and even grew most of the plants himself from seed collected on his own property. It was planted to a mix of tree and shrub seedlings, along with some direct seeding. The area we planted into was a native grass pasture, so this will naturally help to reestablish the understory under the trees.
Satellite imagery showing the plantout site.
“Mother Nature doesn’t grow trees in straight lines”
Often, site preparation for tree planting involves ripping lines in the soil to help water infiltration and to loosen the soil for planting. Most of the time, people rip in straight lines because this is the quickest way from A to B.
Not Daryl. As he always says, “Mother Nature doesn’t grow trees in straight lines”, so he doesn’t either. His rip lines are curved across the paddock like a DNA double helix.
Landcare Grants Announcement
At the event, Alicia also shared some exciting news! The Landcare Grant outcomes were announced by the Environment Minister earlier that week. All four grants submitted by Yarrilinks Network Groups were part funded, receiving an average of 87% of the funding applied for!
Next year, our plantout site will be near Minyip. The best way to stay up to date about our events is to subscribe to our newsletter.
This project was funded by a Victorian Landcare Grant via Wimmera CMA.
