Images of tree plantings often show a happy group of volunteers out in the sunshine, planting happily around easily accessible dams and paddocks. But some plantings are a lot less straightforward… Munash Organics, a Ballarat based sustainable soil improvement company, recently sponsored one such occasion high in the hills above Flowerdale. One of the sites of the devastating 2009 bushfires, the ridges around Flowerdale have suffered from erosion since their tree cover was destroyed. This has had detrimental flow-on effects for habitat down the slopes, and there is a project afoot to redress some of this damage. Project coordinator, Claude Baxter, aims to plant at the tips of gullies on the leeward side of the hills. This means that as the trees grow they will naturally set seedlings further down, and so populate the hard to reach slopes without human intervention.  

      However, this wasn’t a project for the faint-hearted! A hardy bunch of eight volunteers set out to climb the dizzyingly high ridges on a sunny winter’s weekend, accessing the site via an adjoining private property. Those who made the trek planted one hundred and twenty (120) healthy, indigenous Grey Box, Victorian Bluegum, and Yellow Box seedlings in strategic spots, keenly supervised by the local wedge tailed eagles.   Sponsoring trees in remote locations, as Munash has done in this case, means taking a broad view of environmental stewardship. It means recognising that everything is connected. You don’t need to be on site getting dirt on your hands (although we can highly recommend it!) to make a real difference. Munash is improving soil daily on a micro level, project by project, site by site. But it also appreciates that its business activities aren’t without impact. Planting trees is one way to bring back some balance.   Article by Sarah Hart.   Sarah is an emerging self-taught 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.   If you are interested in sponsoring one of our tree planting projects please contact Colleen on 0400 040 650 or [email protected]