Dear Subscribers for the Planet,

Welcome to another year of tree planting. With your support, we are able to offer 1,000s of native trees to community groups across Australia.

As the year progresses, we will keep you updated with all the new plantings as they come in.

Collectively, you are contributing to the restoration of our Australian ecosystems. Thank you to each and every subscriber for your generous on-going support.

Please take a moment to read about your impact and to read about the wonderful people out there who are doing so much for their patch of the earth.

Colleen Filippa | Founder & Director | Fifteen Trees

Here’s a list of our current subscribers (85) …

Mik Aidt (Geelong Media), Deborah Bourke, Dana Bretag, Sandra Briody, Jenn Clark, Andrea Hurley (Hattie and the Wolf), Jacob Johnston, Sean Keniry, Jill Clarke & Paul Duggan, Rosalind Read, Annabel Ritchie, Rosie Hunt, Lynn Teale, Mary Wade, Lorena Wootton, Rae Knowler, Bette Schwarz, Caitlyn Jordan (Ethical Design), Sonja Meyer (Ethical Design), Georgina Imberger, Carole Felmy, Fiona Leahy & Antony Swingler, Christopher Hawkins, James Hosking, Marian Turner, Nyree Windsor, Glenys Grigg, Lucy Bracey, Sarah Hart, Fiona Baxter, Eliza-Jane Gilchrist, Corinna Klupiec, Jess Tatham-Thompson, Helen Charlesworth, Sean Werth, Martine Stoll, Bronwen James, Sharon Chan, David & Karen Dawson, Michael Nicols, Julie Atkinson, Natasha Ludowyk, Belinda Coates, Joanna Cosgriff, Andrew Griffiths, Jen Askham, Anthony & Catherine Clifford, Samantha Little, Marji Puotinen, Gerri Savage, Susan & Darryl Murray, Ellen Burns, Sara Melvin, Helen Browitt, Fern Hames, Daniel Cocking, Cait Larcombe, Swell Magazine, Anthony (AJ) Sleeman, Erin Lee, Sam Munday, Suzannah Morrison, Moria Finucane, Carla Bergen, Sue Giles, Helen Pritchard, Ian Heriot, Natalie Marshall, Liz McLean, Chloe Bond, Liz Stephen, Heidi Fog, Catherine Wilson, Frances, Julia Andrews (Urthly Organics), Richard Finlay-Jones, LSW Lawyers, Jan Souter, Amy Stapleton, Julia Zemiro, Mia Bowyer (Automate Social) and Douglas Proctor.

Site 1 | Bellingen Island, NSW | 500 trees

The trees were planted on Bellingen Island, NSW (Gumbaynggirr Country) by Landcare members over the course of a few weeks. The flying fox population on Bellingen Island is a nationally recognised site. It is mostly occupied by Grey headed Flying Foxes (nationally threatened), while Black Flying Foxes and Little Red Flying foxes have also been recorded at the camp. The area is also home to Koalas, Quolls, Greater Gliders, and Glossy Black Cockatoos.

This particular site was selected to provide multiple benefits, such as:

• increase forage and roost sites for Grey Headed Flying Foxes,
• Improve health of the site,
• reduce erosion and
• improve connectivity between fragmented flora reserves.

The dominant vegetation immediately around planting sites is Lowland Subtropical Rainforest and Wet Sclerophyll Forest, but much of this had been cleared for farmland in the past.

Thank you to the generous sponsors of these trees. By sponsoring this project, you have helped Bellinger Landcare’s efforts to provide increased forage for our beloved local flying fox populations.

Andrew Yager | Project Manager | Bellinger Landcare Inc.

These trees will improve the availability of winter forage for Grey Headed Flying Foxes. These flying foxes are a keystone species in the Australian landscape and provide critical pollination and seed dispersal services. Although they have a varied diet, the availability of nectar in late winter and early spring restricts population growth. By improving the availability of this forage, Bellinger Landcare Group are helping to ease that stress on the flying foxes. The trees will also provide multi-species benefit to other mammals, birds and insects of the area, and help with erosion control and flood mitigation.

A heartfelt thank you to all our ‘Subscribers for the Planet’. And if you have a friend who might be interested in joining, please send along this link for more information.

Writer – Colleen B. Filippa

With a background in Environmental Science, Colleen is the Founding Director of Fifteen Trees. In 2009, after 20 years in primary, secondary and tertiary education institutions, Colleen left the classroom to start the company. Fifteen Trees is a social enterprise assisting individuals and companies to reduce their carbon footprint by supporting community groups such as Landcare, schools and environmental networks.