Skretting Australia is an international company producing feed for the aquaculture industry. They pride themselves on their commitment to sustainability. Walking the talk, they have once again generously committed to helping out our tree planting efforts in Tasmania.

Skretting’s trees (1325) were distributed across 6 sites. At Wynyard, 325 trees were planted along the Inglis River to stabilize bank erosion, 200 trees were planted at French Road Nature Reserve and another 200 trees along the inundated wet areas of Sisters Creek. Peter Lawrence tells us about the French Road Nature Reserve site.

This valuable 34ha of remnant bush is quite rare in the fertile farming region of north-west Tasmania. The reserve is 10km from Wynyard and is home to giant freshwater lobster, burrowing crayfish, and 10 endemic bird species. Recently, newly recruited young volunteers have used remote cameras to record nocturnal mammals, including devils and quolls. Over the past 20 years, Friends of French Rd Nature Reserve have removed willows, pine trees, blackberries and other exotic weeds and have revegetated most areas. However, about 4ha remain to be revegetate, areas that are more difficult, because it is lower fertility gravelly soils. Thank you to Skretting for helping us to continue with this valuable project.

Peter Lawrence | Landcare Coordinator

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  Further south on the island, Paul Grey and his team planted 250 trees at Dodges Ferry.

I am a Project Coordinator of the Okines Community Garden in Dodges Ferry.  We have been established for five years now and have a great following within our community; our most recent event (Winter Solstice Lantern Parade) attracted 250 people on a cold, wet winters night!  Here at the garden we grow fruit and vegetables for the community, demonstrate principles of sustainability, educate the local primary school students through our Grow and Learn Program, host many social events and collaborate with the community on many projects. We have also been actively involved in regeneration works in the adjacent wetland and work closely with the local Coastcare/Landcare group.  We have recently decided to extend our revegetation work to create a corridor of native vegetation along a stormwater drain which runs behind our garden site and flows down to the wetland and the beach.  We greatly appreciate Skretting Austalia’s donation of trees to undertake this project.  Planting was undertaken in collaboration with the local Primary School and the Friends of Lagoon Park. Claire Boost  |  Project coordinator | Okines Community Garden

  And then 100 trees were planted by Sharon Tent and the team at Carlton Park Surf Life Saving Club. Sharon writes …  

On the 24th of July, a small group of Carlton Park Surf Life Saving club members met up to plant some trees and revegetate a newly constructed beach access. It is particularly important to revegetate this area, not only for the sake of appearance, but to hold the sand, as this part of the beach is subject to erosion and sand blow out. Planting shrubs and trees will assist in keeping the dunes intact and potentially protect the surf club from future storm surges. Although the weather forecast for our planting day was a top of 10 degrees and snow covered Hobart’s Mount Wellington, the day proved to be a success, with a sunny afternoon and all 100 trees successfully planted. Some of our very youngest members got into the spirit of the planting, as well as adult members. We planted a mixture of shrubs and trees, staked and guarded some plants and left others out in the open. Having experienced the wettest winter for 5 years, we have high hopes for our revegetation project and almost 2 weeks on, the plants all look healthy. We have a watering and monitoring roster in place and plan to do some additional planting in September. Once the summer nippers season begins in October, as part of the club’s eco-surf policy, nippers will be involved in maintaining the revegetation project. We greatly appreciate the generosity of the Fifteen Trees and Skrettings in gifting the plants to the surf club.

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The final 250 trees were planted by Paul Gray (NRM Facilitator at Sorell Council) at Ramsar Foreshore, Montague St, Sorell. [/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”]

Huge thank you to James Rose (Managing Director of Skretting) for his continued support of tree planting projects in Tasmania. Thanks also to Jenna Bowyer for finding Fifteen Trees and initiating the relationship between the two companies. Slànte – Colleen[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]