We now have two lots of students visiting ImLal from the University of Melbourne. Dr Antanas Spokevicius included ImLal on a Forest Systems field trip comparing different sorts of forestry management. Some 30 Forest Sciences students listened to Steve Murphy present on the design principles behind a biorich plantation on 27 February, 2020.
 Over 20 students from Melbourne University's School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences heard differing viewpoints from Phil Kinghorn and Gib Wettenhall on high or low silviculture of the biorich plantings. Senior Research Fellow Dr Lauren Bennett said later: "There was lively discussion on the return bus about the various issues that were raised, including comments on how instructive it was to see the reality of restoration practices, and how enjoyable the visit had been overall." We just fled the hilltop in time as the wind rose and the rain fell. It was the day an extreme weather event caused massive outages in South Australia. Lauren concluded: "there were also comments on how well you (we) managed the weather (these admittedly made later as the rain set in)." MU hopes to repeat the visit in coming years.  Some 40 Gordon TAFE students from Geelong visited the ImLal site in August. After background from Stephen Murphy, Phil Kinghorn handed out pruning tools so the Conservation and Land Management students could gain some practical experience of an essential silvicultural skill. And it proved good vigorous exercise for a typically cold winter's day at ImLal.
 (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. |
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