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.
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.
