Calling all nature lovers and bird enthusiasts and supporters of our Pozible Campaign Trees for the Tawny.

We have planted the trees! Now let us tell you all about them.

Dear Tawny Lovers!

Through your generous pledges, we raised the funds to purchase 633 native trees (and tree guards) for our iconic Tawny Frogmouths. Over the 3 week campaign in April, 55 people pledged their support and together we gathered $6,330.00.

It is with gratitude and appreciation that we thank you for trusting us to complete this project to its end.

Colleen Filippa | Founding Director | Fifteen Trees

With your generous support, we went on a mission to plant 633 native trees at three vital revegetation sites, two in Victoria and one in Tasmania. All Tawny Frogmouth territory!

Site A | Huon Valley (Melukerdee Country), TAS | 200 trees

Russ Trust Landcare Group manages conservation covenant land at Huon Valley in Tasmania/Lutruwita. The land is an unusual mix of native rainforest, wet forest and 25 acres of niten (pulp tree) plantation. Sixteen acres of this has been harvested and is being actively regenerated, with the remainder transitioning more gradually.

Over the course of the winter and spring, 200 trees have been planted thanks to contributors to our Pozible campaign. All plants have been protected with tree guards, stakes, pins and chicken wire covers.

A range of species were chosen to reflect the native surrounds and provide habitat for threatened species. These included blue gums, white gums, mountain ash and other eucalyptus species, fast growing dogwoods and blanket leaf (which possums find particularly delicious) and bird-friendly shrubs such as banksias and bottlebrushes. The local wrens and robins are always interested when planting occurs as mulch is moved and insects unearthed, providing an easy meal. Other local animals include wedge tailed eagles and black cockatoos who watch from high above, currawongs and ravens who investigate all the tools, while wallabies, pademelons and possums all watch on. Other local species who need cover and old logs to hide in include echidnas, eastern quolls and devils. At night boobook owls, tawny frogmouths and a range of frogs sing to one another.

While most of the planting was done by the land-holders, on National Tree Day (Sunday July 28th) community members arrived to assist with the planting and afterwards enjoyed a campfire on what turned out to be an extremely cold day!

We are incredibly grateful to Fifteen Trees and their supporters for helping to fund this regeneration project and conservation at large. As we worked, we enjoyed seeing nature participate in recovery with hundreds of different fungi growing in our planting site, ferns poking out from felled branches and now native orchids are popping up around our plants. We look forward to watching our baby plants grow, knowing that their conservation status means they will be protected long-term.

Thanks so much for supporting us, it means a lot to know that other people care about this place and our collective future. It’s a drop in the ocean for climate change and helping threatened species but every bit helps!

Gayle Newbold | Member |Russ Trust Landcare Group

Site B | Huntly (Djaara Country), VIC | 100 trees

On Mother’s Day, Sunday May 12th, ninety-five (95) people attended ‘Trees For Mum & High Tea’ at the Huntly Park, just north of Bendigo, VIC. Djaara Country. This is a much-loved annual event for the Northern Bendigo Landcare Network (NBLN).

The Huntly Lions Park is at the northern entrance to Bendigo and is a lovely little rest stop with mature River Red Gums adjacent to Back Creek and leading to a larger natural reserve that, in the early 1900’s, was the original Huntly Botanical Gardens. Many residents felt they had lost their connection with this local park and no longer viewed it as an asset or a safe green space. After finding residents alternative options, this was the right time to give the park a fresh start and reinstate it as a place of community pride.

Volunteers planted indigenous trees, shrubs and grasses such as Saltbush, Spreading Wattle, Sweet Bursaria and Bushy Needlewood, Kangaroo Grass, Common Tussock Grass, Wallaby Grass and Anther-Flax Lily.

These plants over time, will provide under-storey to the existing eucalypts at the site, help restore indigenous vegetation, showcase native vegetation to the visitors who stop off and use the area, and complement the native vegetation found in the natural reserve adjacent to the Lions Park. This area,  is a valuable piece of remnant vegetation with enormous potential for Bendigo. In future, the NBLG aims to work with council to link the Lions Park, via the old Botanic Gardens and along Back Creek to the Recreation Reserve. From here there are linkages to Bendigo Creek and to Goldleaf Wetland to link up all the valuable pieces of green space.

We are incredibly grateful to the sponsors of our plants for helping us create such a unique experience.

Our ‘Trees For Mum and High Tea’ Mother’s Day planting event has become an annual tradition for families in our area. It’s so special to provide this opportunity for new mums, families year after year as their children grow, families who’ve lost their wife/mother or those remembering a nana/grandma.

It’s a very gentle event – we ask no questions – but welcome everyone with compassion to spend some time in the healing power of nature.

Nicole Howie | Secretary | Northern Bendigo Landcare Network

The park is home to Sugar Gliders, Brush-Tail Possums, Echidnas, Sulphur-crested Cockatoos, Galahs, Eastern Rosellas, Musk Lorikeets, Magpies, Kookaburras and members of the Honeyeater family.

Site C | Creswick, VIC | 333 trees

Landholder Celeste Hevey has been committed to revegetation for over a decade on her 20 acre property near Ballarat. This season, they planted an additional 333 trees with the assistance of Fifteen Trees sponsors of Trees for the Tawny. Celeste’s revegetation effort over this time has been undertaken to improve habitat as well as to sequester carbon. The new plantings will provide food and shelter for Yellow Tail Black Cockatoos, Gang Gang Cockatoos, Willie Wagtails, Robin Red Breasts, Nankeen Kestrels and of course Tawny Frogmouths!

The property is on the Victorian Volcanic Plains and the revegetating project aims to be a Plains Grassy Woodland habitat similar to that which would have grown here prior to white settlement. Trees planted included Acacias or wattles, Sheoaks, a variety of eucalypts plus Hakeas and Tea-trees.

I hope to encourage animals that naturally live on the margins of forests to be accommodated here and extend the habitat adjacent to a nearby creek. This planting is part of a long-term plan. Some of the animals we are planning to support need very old hollowed trees for breeding, but we are in it for the long haul and even though we won’t be around to see black cockatoos breeding in the trees we plant, we feel lucky that we have the land to be able to enable this to happen.have noticed over the time that we have been planting that many more smaller birds are coming into the property.

Celeste Hevey | Member | Creswick Landcare Group.

Of course, this isn’t just about planting trees. It’s about creating homes, sanctuaries, and thriving ecosystems where our iconic Tawnies can flourish. Thank you for coming together with us to make a real difference for our feathered friends, the Tawny Frogmouths!

If you would like to know more about sponsoring community tree planting projects please contact Colleen at <[email protected]>.

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.