 | It was certainly a beautiful autumn day for the Federation University student visit in April, with the majority of the 32 students doing their final year of the Land Restoration and Rehabilitation course. BRT President Phil Kinghorn spoke to them at the entrance about the history of ImLal and the birth of the idea of biorich plantations at the BRT conference nine years ago. They then followed biorich designer Stephen Murphy into a sunny spot beside the shining gums where he could point out the layering that has developed and the five different plant families that could be seen from this one location. We had a good interactive session with the students participating in some role plays of the four native animals have relevance to ImLal and in recreating woodland layering, with students becoming canopy trees, understorey, shrubs and a log on the green shade cloth stage. Course leader, Singarayer "Florry" Florentine then asked the students to survey the plants in the study quadrats. The BRT crew checked out the survival rates on the biolink (which were not too bad considering the recent dry spell – at least 70% from what we saw at the southern end). |
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 (L-R) AFG Pres David Fisken; BRT Pres Gib Wettenhall; IAFN Pres Mil Bekin Faries; BRT Sec Ian Penna. 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.  Diana Lloyd, a Southern Cross University lecturer is running a sustainable forestry unit and one fine April morning she brought a group of students to visit. A number of the students work with such forestry 'heavy hitters' as Australian Paper, and the Victorian government agencies of DSE and DPI. Two employees from Australian Paper bought copies of Recreating the Country and said they could see how such plantations might suit mining site rehabilitation.
Diana Lloyd reported the students thought the biorich plantation concept was "impressive." They commented on the importance of maintaining the purity of the biorich design. "Some would have preferred that species like the redwood weren’t part of the plan," she said. |
AuthorGib Wettenhall is interested in how we carry out large scale landscape restoration that involves the people who live in those landscapes. That, he believes, would build truly resilient landscapes. 
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