Working together to rehabilitate country
By Dr Chris Reed
Climate change has increased the intricacy of our land management. As an industry we need to look more intently at environmental rehabilitation and continue to put into place strategies that protect our ecosystems, lives and livelihoods.
I have always been a bit of a bush kid. Walking to school in the morning I would come across the local plants and interesting creatures. I got to know these familiar sights, the skinks and blue tongue lizards, all types of birds and the bush plants, the gums, purple sarsaparilla, and egg and bacon plants. When I got older, I learnt the botanical names and how to grow them.
I remember fires burning through the mountains, watching as the fire slowly burnt from one end of the range to the other. Tragically, even then, lives were lost, and homes destroyed. The fires now are far more dangerous, deadlier and much more frequent. Looking out across the valley I see the smoke, not from fires around us, but from fires far away. A reminder of the dreadful days not so long ago and the horror that might come our way again.
We live on an extraordinary continent. One that has origins far older than all of human existence. It is enduring, it has evolved in a way that matches the existing forces of nature. Places flood and places burn, and wind can reshape the lands.
On this continent, over five hundred aboriginal peoples resided and developed complex human systems, and none of them called it Australia. They didn’t just manage the land they understood and utilised the environment. This was a diverse land populated by peoples with unique languages and cultures. One thing they had in common was that they did not exploit the natural world they inhabited, they honoured it and they understood it. The more recent occupiers of this land named it Australia, our home. Like the original inhabitants, many Australians also have a close connection to the land and they too respect and understand the complexities of our environment.
Climate change has increased the intricacy of our land management. As an industry we need to look more intently at environmental rehabilitation and continue to put into place strategies that protect our ecosystems, lives and livelihoods.
However, industries, organisations, individuals and groups cannot do this in isolation, we all need to work together. We need to work with everyone who understands the land. Parks and forest professionals, aboriginal organisations, communities, researchers, farmers and local, state and federal government, can all contribute. Together we might be able to ensure a better future by building resilience and protection for our environments. As a large and knowledgeable group our industry can play a key role. One that rehabilitates the land and provides habitats for a multitude of living creatures.
I have grown many plants for the rehabilitation of some areas after the Black Saturday fires in Victoria in 2009. This took time and the planning skills of organisations like Landcare. One thing that was clear during the Black Saturday rehabilitation process was the importance of locally sourced indigenous seed. Every effort was made to collect suitable seeds from nearby stands of plants that were identical to those lost in the fires. Maintaining local diversity was essential. Many plants have local characteristics that are not always consistent across locations.
One of the more unusual suggestions for plant species rehabilitation is the use of seeds stored in distant seedbanks in other countries. While this may have merit, it is time for us to develop a similar system to ensure all our plant species are safe. Collecting and storing seeds that are indigenous to each unique sector of forest or land is a huge job, but one that is needed.
Organisations like the Australian Seedbank Partnership do have seed collections. However, it is not an emergency source of seeds for rehabilitation. The National Standards for Ecological Restoration do set a criterion for environment rehabilitation. The Society for Ecological Restoration Australasia (SERA) states “Even those places where few people tread are threatened by our actions: remote alpine and wet forests are now regularly devastated by human-made fires intensified by a changing climate”. While this statement is admirable, we are now looking for workable strategies for growing, distributing and planting vast areas damaged by natural disasters. Regardless, there needs to be open and balanced communication between all stakeholders to develop a positive strategy for recovery. The nursery industry is well suited to be a valued contributor in protecting and restoring our lands.
While it is in our best interest to develop extensive seedbanks for rehabilitation, it could be far more difficult to grow the plants to replace lost diversity. There is no easy way to predict where re-planting may be needed. Even when an area needs renewal, it will still take months or even years to grow plants for distribution. The increasing number and intensity of natural disasters require our responses to be planned and delivered promptly and with precision. This takes an almost military approach to collect, store and distribute seeds specific to local needs. A local or regional capacity to produce plants and distribute them to rehabilitate devastated areas is also needed. This is a massive job.
We need to be in a position where we are confident that we can repair and recover the land and ensure that it is properly restored, even when nature proves to be bigger than our defences. It would be wonderful if our beautiful land, its forests and its diversity of fauna and flora could be protected. Children in the future will be enthralled by the beauty of our world, they might even see some purple sarsaparilla plants (Hardenbergia sp.) growing at the side of the road.
http://www.seedpartnership.org.au
http://landcareaustralia.org.au/project/traditional-aboriginal-burning-modern-day-land-management