On our first Thinning Day, half a dozen people turned up with chainsaws for different sorts of thinning in three areas of ImLal South. It's six years since we established this site and we had always planned that this spring is when we ought to begin reducing competition between plants.

The first area was a no-brainer. A team of three cut down a swathe of 'volunteer' manna gums  that had invaded one edge of the site and were growing up under a power line. One of the team followed up with a 50:50 mix of gylphosate and water, painting stumps, prevent coppicing. This was done in all three areas.

In the second area, another team halved the number of blue gums in the forestry block from 1,000st/ha to 500st/ha (see above). Those with the best form were selected to grow on.

In the third area to the west, we plan to minimise pruning and thinning. The plan here is to leave thickets of trees, but carve out open patches every 20-30m and remove invading trees where they are overwhelming shrubs. At one quiet spot much-loved by birdlife, we reduced the large number of swamp gums growing through everlasting shrubs, although leaving a screen of swampies for wind protection (see below).

You can view a gallery of pix on the Home page.

We're looking for planters to put in 2,000 tubestock trees, shrubs, grasses and  herbs on the west side of the central dam (pictured). This will link the north and south ImLal sites, providing a biodiverse core of 15ha in total.

The date for the Planting & Field Day is Sunday 4 October, meeting at the Lal Lal Hall for a briefing at 9.30am. Equipment provided and we're offering a free lunch. (Who said there was no such thing!).

The planting plan has been prepared by Steve Murphy, who'll preside over the planting day. He has consulted with BRT President Phil Kinghorn over the farm forestry clumps – we're going to put in a grove of oak trees, a bank of callitris and more river she-oak. 

Biodiverse plants will include some locally endangered species, such as Banksia marginata and Hakea decurrens.

To register, contact Ballarat Region Treegrowers President, Phil Kinghorn on: geoking@vic.chariot.net.au

Ballarat Region Treegrower members with pruning experience will teach and supervise at the field day, which will start at 11am on Friday 17 October.  We’ll stick to forestry trees and practice on invading trees along the 5ha biorich plantation’s edges. Pruning is not just about form pruning for timber values – although if you want to get a sawlog some time in the future, you’ll need to prune. Pruning is also a way of reducing dense canopy trees that are outcompeting shrubs in an environmental planting.  And pruning makes it possible to walk and see through what could otherwise become impenetrable scrub. There’s some who argue you can overprune   – so come along, learn another skill and be part of the discussion.

Please RSVP to Gib Wettenhall on Contact us so we have an idea how many are coming along. We're meeting at the ImLal display board, 100m past the Ironmine Rd intersection on Lal Lal Falls Rd. BYO lunch and secateurs. $10 for non-AFG members; free to AFG members.