We are looking to prepare our 1st site management plan. One of the issues we are facing is whether to begin form pruning of trees. Resident printing fanatic Phil is itching to let his secateurs loose. 
He argues that it's as much for aesthetics as for silvicultural reasons. If we want the site to be 'park-like' (refer Gammage) and escape the mongrel scrub afflicting many Landcare plantings, we will need to prune and thin, he says.

Forester Gary Featherston agrees that we should start pruning the forestry trees to 4m.  He was tactfully silent on the question of widescale pruning.
Thinning he thinks can wait a couple of years. He would leave the thickets of silver wattle (bottom right) to sort themselves out. They're good for biodiversity, he points out, providing protection for small birds.

Phil Kinghorn, Gary Featherston and I marked the outer edge of the proposed 50 metre wide biolink, which will connect the south and north ImLal sites.  The biolink will sweep in an arc from the hill around the ridge along the western side of the central dam.

Imerys is contracting Jensans to respray the gorse and rip four rows approximately eight metres apart.

We have applied for Communities for Nature funding and will know the outcome in June. In the meantime, we have to take our chances and prepare the ground if we are to plant the mixed bag of selected indigenous species of shrubs and trees this spring. The CfN grant is for 2,000 plants, which Imerys will top up with another 500.

Species selected for the biolink were chosen by Stephen Murphy.

Milo Bekin Faries, President of the International Analog Forestry Network visited the ImLal biorich site on a chilly day at the end of April.  While he saw the plantation as a good example of analogue forestry principles, he found the cold hard to deal with. Milo hails from tropical Costa Rica, and his week of AF workshops with farmers associated with the Moorabool Landcare Network proved unrelentingly cold and wet.  Next time!

Milo's AF farm in Costa Rica  applies a ratio of 50% biodiversity to 50% productive plants. He makes much of his income from producing and marketing essential oil products.