Earlier this year, we took possession of 38-acres in McLeans Ridges which will become the home of Science Saving Rainforests and the Conservancy.
Since then we’ve launched into action, starting to prepare the site for the plantation of genetically-diverse rainforest trees and working on a master plan for the landscaping and educational facilities that will also occupy the land.
Early site preparation has focussed on the removal of macadamia plantation trees, camphor laurels and other weed trees, improving habitat for water birds and riparian fauna and soil improvement through the planting of cover crops.
The clearing of the weed species on site makes way for the block plantings of 60 rainforest tree species which will see the Science Saving Rainforests model tested for the first time – 1,200 to 1,800 threatened or key structural subtropical rainforest trees will be planted in an orchard-style arrangement enabling the genetically diverse trees for each species to cross-pollinate.
With most of the leaf sampling complete and DNA analysis underway, the next phase in the project has turned to growing the selected trees for planting in the plantation in the coming year or two.
So far over 230 collections from wild growing trees have been collected across 26 species from sites in New South Wales, with an average of 40 cuttings struck per collection. Our propagule collections team and nursery team have been working full steam ahead and making great progress, collecting and labelling what will become the first batch of genetically diverse trees for the plantation for the plantation.
We are excited to see the first cuttings being potted up into 50mm pots as well as some of the first seed collections being potted up. A massive thank you goes to our collectors Darren Bailey, Sam Brown, Jake Lennon, Barbara Stewart and Annette McKinley who are doing the hard yards out in the field as well as to the awesome Firewheel crew – Jo Ierace, Hilke Felema, Hamish Webster and Joel Bowmer.
Science Saving Rainforests aims to restore the genetic diversity destroyed by land clearing, help save threatened species and grow a new generation of rainforest trees more resilient to threats like disease, pests and climate change. We’ve joined forces with the Botanic Gardens of Sydney, Firewheel Rainforest Nursery and one of Australia’s leading rainforest evolutionary and field ecologists, Dr Robert Kooyman, to bring this world-first project to life.
To date, over 12,500 leaf samples from 56 species of rainforest trees have been collected between Southern NSW and Far North Queensland and their genetic make-up analysed using the latest genome-based science. The outcome will be to identify trees that collectively capture at least 90% of the remaining genetic diversity in the local genetic neighbourhood, collect propagation material from them to grow on and subsequently plant in an orchard-style plantation. Seed produced once the plantation trees begin to mature will be used to grow resilient trees for future planting projects.
We need your support to build not only the plantation but an education resource centre for schools and the community. Please donate to help this world-first project and help save the Big Scrub and other subtropical rainforests from extinction.
