Professional forester Peter Devonshire was offered the chance to buy an unmanaged pine plantation at a knock down price on a steep site in south Gippsland. He took a punt, harvested  the 8ha of pines and then watched in horror when heavy rain sent three tonnes of topsoil tumbling into  the gully below. So he took another punt and made the daring decision NOT to spray the site and planted spotted gum at 500st/ha, hoping that they would outcompete the weeds that would inevitably come back on the now razed site.

Imagine his surprise when what outpaced the spotted gum were not weeds, but local indigenous species like silver wattle, messmate and dogwood. They blanketed the site, not only holding the soil, but moreover gifting Peter his very own weed-free analogue forest. 

Eight years on the site has the look and feel of natural forest and his only real problem is stopping the silver wattle from overtopping the gums. His solution is ringbarking those particularly bolshie  wattles (on right). 

President of the Gippsland Agroforestry Network, Peter loves his forest and the magnificent views he gets from the new house he's built on top of the hill above his forest. He's trying to add to the analogue forest, but having problems... The wallabies that have moved into the new habitat he's created regard Peter's attempts at further plantings of spotted gum tubestock as delicious tidbits ripe for the taking right on their front doorstep. On a field day visit, one of those  in the  group talked about how he had designed a supposedly wallaby-proof fence, which he's going to lend to Peter. We'll have to wait and see whether or not that enables the analogue forest to expand!

The Australian Forest Growers 2104 National Conference in Lismore northern NSW attracted three outstanding keynote speakers for the opening session – Major General The Honourable Michael Jeffery, AC, a former Governor-General; Mick Keogh, Executive Director of the Australian Farm Institute; and Professor Andrew Campbell, Director of the Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods at Charles Darwin University.

In the face of global warming and “converging insecurities,” they agreed forests were an essential component of healthy, sustainable agricultural and biodiverse landscapes.

Last year Michael Jeffery was appointed by the Prime Minister as Australia’s Advocate for Soil Health. He highlighted the role of forests in what he called the ‘small water cycle’, through transpiration by leaves and ensuring the optimal filtration of water into the soil. Where farmers holistically managed soil, water and biota, they should be adequately recompensed for their custodianship, he said.

Mick Keogh agreed that the nation needs to develop stewardship arrangements for biodiversity conservation. He acknowledged that growing trees as part of a rural enterprise helps with risk management as an alternative source of income; and growing trees has side benefits in water and shade management.

Andrew Campbell, well known to many farmers as one of the founders of Landcare, pointed out that “converging insecurities” were making it ever more imperative to link management of energy, water, biota and food production. The direct impacts of climate change are increasing. The era of cheap, easily extracted fuels is running out. For the first time in history, we will have to face increasing food production without clearing land: “We will have to do more with less land, less energy, less water.”

“We need a third agricultural revolution,” he said. Its technical elements would include biodiverse carbon sinks  “to offset unavoidable emissions” and on-farm systems producing 2nd generation, lignocellulosic bioenergy. Echoing Michael Jeffery, Andrew Campbell believed the revolution would have to include closed loop farming systems (embracing water, energy nutrients and carbon); and better understanding of soil carbon and microbial activity.

 Integrating 30% of mixed species trees and habitat into farms was the way of the future, he said.

   
The public launch of the Canadian Multi Use Forest Park proposal was held on Saturday 20 September. Phil Kinghorn,Steve Murphy and myself attended a Wauthawurrung 'smoking ceremony' in the messmate forest, followed by a short uphill walk to the 750ha site, which is a decommissioned Hancock plantation  on the edge of Ballarat.  A massive 350ha has been cleared, and under the terms of the reserved Crown land, it has, according to DEPI, to be put to 'productive use.' This favours re-establishing vegetation for  the recreation park using a biorich model, mixing linkages to the surrounding natural forest in with  'productive' forestry clumps.

Two of the convenors for Friends of the Canadian Corridor, Linda Zibell and Jeff Rootes, have attended our bird surveys and have come away impressed with the biorich concept. The ALP has promised $2 million towards establishing the park. With the election less than two months away, the other major parties are expected to come on board the bandwagon.

Implicit in the land restoration film title of 'Rediscovering the country' is that the land was once well understood, respected and cared for, and that we need to find a way back to this state of being.  A survey by the Christensen Fund, a major US philanthropic trust, found that 80% of the world's most biodiverse regions were owned and managed by Indigenous peoples.  As animists, Indigenous people have deep knowledge about their landscape and a spiritual connection with all the plants, animals and places in it. We – like them –  will have to develop a greater knowledge of and stronger connection to everything in our landscape if we are ever to become custodians – like they once were throughout Australia. 

In north east Arnhem Land, the Yolngu people still live on their land, acting as custodians for their country. A senior Indigenous ranger Yumutjin Wunungmurra (pictured), said when I interviewed him a couple of weeks ago:  “I learnt by listening and watching. My father never stopped singing to the country, calling up places and animals. I’m still singing his songs. The land and everything in it speaks to us. We know all their names and stories. When the wind blows a certain way, we know where the fish will be."

Searching for words to explain his connection to country, Yumutjin turned and struck the tree behind him with passion,  exclaiming: "This tree is my mother!"

Now that's what I call connected to country!