Over the course of 2020, 110 generous souls chose to do something special, something real. In partnership with Fifteen Trees, they purchased 60 trees* for us to plant with community groups across 3 Australian states.

 

From us at Fifteen Trees and from numerous native plant nurseries, landholders and community groups,

we are sending out a heartfelt thank you!

 

Let’s show you where the trees have been planted, who planted them and what type of trees (and shrubs and grasses) have been planted.

 

 

Membership trees (6,600) were planted in three Australian states; Victoria, Western Australia and Tasmania.

• W.A – Esperance 1500 trees,
• VIC – Mt Worth 1,000 trees, Flowerdale 1000 trees, Mornington Peninsular 1000 trees, Bendigo 600, Meredith 500,
• TAS – Various sites 1000 trees.

Esperance, WA

Esperance is located on the south coast of Western Australia. It is a beautiful district with white sand beaches, wildflower reserves and a national park called Cape Le Grand. We have been working with Dorothy Henderson and this district for many years, helping the family to re-vegetate the property with native shrubs and trees. Longtime lovers of all things native, the Henderson’s are creating a wonderful ecosystem that encourages wildlife to return to the area.

 

Trees obtained via Friends of Fifteen Trees have enabled us to continue our program of tree planting in vulnerable areas on our property, particularly at a time when funding via other sources is difficult to obtain. Without these trees, our property would not be the habitat for birds and other wildlife that it is now. Although there is plenty more to be done, we are so excited by what has been achieved so far.

We have planted species such as Eucalyptus occidentals (swamp mate), Acacia myrleforlia (myrtle wattle), Acacia cyclops (coastal wattle), Acacia saligna (WA golden wattle) and Melaleuca cuticularis (saltwater paperbark).

Huge thank you to all Friends of Fifteen Trees. You are our friends too!

Dorothy Henderson | Landholder | Esperance

 

 

Mt Worth, VIC

Mount Worth is in the beautiful district of West Gippsland. It is located 15 km south of Warragul in the western Strzelecki Ranges. It offers rainforest walking trails and scenic views of Gippsland.

The wet, mountain rainforest of mountain ash, blackwood and mountain grey gum, supports a wide variety of plants and animals, such as the tree ferns, wombat, possum, platypus, crimson rosella and lyrebird. It is truly a magical place.

The Mt Worth and District Landcare Group were most appreciative of the offer to purchase 1000 trees for their tree planting projects.

These trees have been a great asset to our planting projects. We are aiming to revegetate creek lines to prevent erosion from stock and to improve the habitat for native wildlife such as lyre birds, Giant Gippsland earthworms and native species such as the Burrowing Crayfish.

Robert East | Secretary | Mt Worth and District Landcare Group

 

Flowerdale, VIC

In the Flowerdale district of Victoria, the 1,000 trees were distributed to a number of Landcare members who are all working hard to look after their land. The trees were planted along creeks and rivers, up hills and in valleys. In all cases, these trees will help stop erosion of our precious soil, sequester carbon, filter the water flowing into the waterways and provide habitat to native wildlife.

Thank you for the opportunity to bring back health and vigour into our farmlands. The trees will form the basis for diverse flora and fauna communities. We can now create even more wildlife corridors on farms, roadsides and rail trails thanks to you!

Allison Spratt | Member | Home Creek – Spring Creek Landcare Group.

 

Mornington Peninsula, VIC

The Mornington Peninsula Koala Conservation project was established in 2018. We are a registered Landcare group and part of the Mornington Peninsula Landcare Network (MPLN), a body representing the 12 Landcare groups on the Mornington Peninsula. Our group seeks to address the issue of landscape connectivity, which is in line with the goals of the Mornington Peninsula Landcare Network to reconnect patches of remnant bushland through biolinks.​ The MPLN has many years of experience in restoring native vegetation on private land such as the Greens Bush to Arthurs Seat Biolink one of many large projects already in progress, which is​ restoring 200ha of private land between these two large patches of remnant vegetation.

We are most grateful to supporters of Fifteen Trees for these trees. Please come visit us at Arthur’s Seat to see these trees.

Dirk Jansen | President | Mornington Peninsula Koala Conservation

 

 

Bendigo, VIC

Earlier this year our Landcare Group (Northern Bendigo Landcare Group) was approached by a young couple who are establishing an organic vegetable farm on the fertile soils beside Reedy Creek at Huntly North (20kms north east of Bendigo in central Victoria).  Keen to restore the land using natural principles to increase riparian health, biodiversity and boost productivity of their farm they also recognised they had little knowledge of locally native plants and revegetation techniques.

Two Landcare members visited them on site in May. Their plot had been cleared by settlers originally and grazed ever since. Reedy Creek ran down one side of their land.  An ephemeral waterway, it had several established River Red Gums on its banks and several Grey Boxes set further back.  Some River Red Gum regeneration had succeeded following past flooding events but little other native vegetation remained – no rushes or sedges along the bank, zero shrubs and very few trees to stabilise the soils and minimise erosion.

Our group is always happy to offer advice to the community but not always in a position to offer support by way of materials, equipment or labour.  We really wanted to help this lovely young couple with such positive dreams of a life restoring the land and growing organic food for our community.  I immediately thought of Friends of Fifteen Trees and was delighted to hear that we would receive 600 trees for this fantastic project.

Thank you everyone!

Nicole Howie | Secretary | Northern Bendigo Landcare Group

 

 

Meredith, VIC

Five hundred trees were planted at Meredith, VIC by Nick McKinley and the Bamganie and Meredith Landcare Group.

The trees went to a number of landholders who are enhancing remnant vegetation with new indigenous tree plantings. The landholders have fenced off these revegetation areas to exclude stocks. We are all very grateful to Fifteen Trees and their supporters for purchasing trees for our ongoing restoration projects.

Nick McKinley | Secretary | Bamganie Meredith Landcare

 

 

Various sites, Tasmania, TAS

Landcare Tasmania were delighted to work with Fifteen Trees to source the right seedlings and find the best possible locations for the trees. Membership trees were planted by members of Landcare at sites such as Huon Island, Alexander Creek, Seymour and She Oaks Hills.

Huon island lies at the mouth of the Huon river in southern Tasmania. Once known as the island of tall trees it was deforested in the 1800’s to make way for a potato farm. For many years the “Friends of Huon Island” have been replanting the island with local native species re-creating habitats for the endangered Swift Parrot, Little Penguins and Shearwaters that call the island home.

Huge shout out to all the supporters of Fifteen Trees. You absolutely rock!

Huon Landcare | Tasmania

 

 

 

Fifteen Trees members are of all ages, come from all walks of life, and hail from the widest variety of professions. We have artists, management professionals, yogis, teachers, activists, small business owners, musicians, retirees and more. What all of our members have in common is the desire to ask themselves what more they can do for the planet we all share. Each and every one of you is amazing.

There are always ways to do more. This is an easy one. If you’d like to reduce your own carbon footprint to zero, or give that gift to another, get in touch with us and become a Friend of Fifteen Trees.

*So why 60?

The average Australian lifestyle uses 15,000kg of carbon per year. If that sounds like a lot, it is! A tree collects and stores 268kg over its lifetime. This means we need to plant 58 trees per year (we’ve rounded up to 60) to bring our individual carbon consumption down to zero. A little tricky for most of us to do in our own backyards, which is where we come in.

Here is a link to the 2019 Report The trees are flourishing, storing away that carbon like the climate champions they are.

 

Writer –  Sarah Hart.

Sarah is an artist whose passions include the stories and experiences of women and narrative driven creative work. Her aim is to delight, to reveal glimpses of everyday beauty, and to celebrate flights of the ordinary. Sarah works across a range of media, with an abiding interest in pen and ink, mixed media and the human form. You can find Sarah here.