[permaculture-oceania] Community Forest planting days
David Arnold
davidarnold at iinet.net.au
Tue Jul 25 01:12:29 EST 2006
Hi All,
Any permies who would like to come and help are welcome to camp in the forest at
our place. Violet Town is 2 hours north east of Melbourne. This place is an easy walk
[less than a km] from the train station, and then a similar distance to the Community
Forest site. Accommodation is also available in the town, or especially at the Parish
Perfumery ph. 5798 1381.
Below is an invitation to the first planting days for the new Violet Town Community
Forest, and also some of the story so far of this project.
The second day, on Sunday 10th September, is the day after the Violet Town market
so it can be a good social weekend.
Late news this project today won the North East region Sustainability Victoria /
Tidy Towns "Innovation for Sustainability" award, and is now a State finalist in this
category.
But we haven't even started planting yet!
David Arnold davidarnold at iinet.net.au
4446 Murchison Rd, Violet Town VIC 3669
03 5798 1679 0428 981 679
Come and help to plant the new
Violet Town Community Forest
The first planting days will be on
Saturday 2nd September
and
Sunday 10th September
9.30 am start
Lunch and drinks provided
All welcome
Shadforth Reserve
Shiffner St Violet Town
Enquiries ph.
David 5798 1679
Howard 5798 1381
Violet Town Community Forest 2006 the establishment
year
Where is it?
The initial planting will be on vacant land within the old racetrack on
Shadforth Reserve, which adjoins Shiffner St on the North side of the
town. To the west of the sportsfields, within the trotting track, there are
8.3 ha of mainly grass, with some planted trees. This is the area to be
planted in 2006.
Shadforth Reserve was set aside about 110 years ago as a public
recreation reserve. The Violet Town Golf Club course is laid out around
the outside of the old race track, and the track is used for training
trotters. There are two sports fields within the race track area. One of
these is maintained for junior cricket games. The other field has an
earth bank around it and was apparently initially developed in about the
late 1940’s as a velodrome. This field has not been maintained for
cricket or other sports, and may also be available for future planting.
How can this new Community Forest be used?
This forest has been planned as a mixed species productive forest, to
grow firewood, posts, poles and sawlogs for the community, and to be a
forage resource for beekeepers in the town. The better formed trees
will be kept to grow on as sawlogs. The forest will never be clearfelled,
just selectively harvested and always with the long term continual
improvement of the forest in mind.
The forest will also include many local understorey species. As the
forest develops and is managed, we anticipate that the forest will
evolve to mimic the structure and functions of natural forest. Habitat
values for native wildlife will be high, especially in combination with the
reasonable number of older hollow bearing trees nearby.
The diversity of species and species combinations on the different soil
types within the plantation, with a range of flowering times and foliage
types, should provide year-round interest to people walking through and
around the forest. Some of the species with foliage dense to the ground
are good fun for children.
What kinds of trees and shrubs will be planted?
About half of the 5060 plants being planted this year are local box and
gum trees, wattles and casuarinas, bursaria and melaleuca. Some
other plants are native to the region, such as Weeping Myall from north
of Echuca or River She-oak from around the Murrumbidgee River.
Sugar Gum and Spotted Gum are from elsewhere in South East
Australia – but long established locally – and were included because
there are provenances of them that are fast growing and straight, with
really good wood.
To the east of the sportsfields, within the trotting track, are 5.7 ha which
includes some old remnant grey box trees, and a fair few younger grey
box trees that have regenerated from the older ones. This area will also
be a productive part of the community forest, and will be managed for
wood production as well as for wildlife habitat and amenity values. This
area will be planted with more trees and especially shrubs in 2007.
Only local indigenous plants will be used in this area. Managing it for
wood production will be a chance to demonstrate the excellent wood
quality of our local box species in particular, when they are managed
for good form and spacing.
Who will manage the area?
The Shadforth Reserve Committee of Management will be re-
established to include representatives of all the groups that use the
Reserve. That is, the Golf Club, Cricket Club, trotting trainers, and the
Community Forest.
A forest management plan is being written for the forest to set out how
it can be managed to give wood products and be a nice place for
recreational use, and protect habitat values for wildlife.
Who is paying for the planting costs?
In 2006 we have a grant from DPI / GBCMA, and a donation from the
Sheep Pen Creek Land Management Group. VTAG has been behind
the project from the beginning and are prepared to subsidise any
shortfall in funding with community funds that they raise from
organising the famous Violet Town Market.
All the planning, organising, ground preparation and planting work is by
volunteer community effort.
What about fire risk?
We take the risk of fire very seriously. Our intention and planning is to
reduce the current fire risk. Until the site was burnt in Autumn 2006 it
was an extreme fire risk with a very heavy build-up of dry grass. By
shading and competition from the trees the volume and density of dry
grass will be greatly reduced.
Eucalypts are generally very flammable trees, but we have still chosen
to use some eucalypt species because they are local, fast growing and
hardy with really good wood.
Throughout this 2006 planting, every 3rd planting row will be either
casuarina or black wattle. Casuarinas and Black Wattle tend to keep
their low foliage, and healthy live trees of these species are far less
flammable than eucalypts. These rows are intended to act to cool the
intensity of a fire and slow its movement through the forest. During the
2006 Grampians fires Black Wattle was described as outstanding for
not catching alight as the fire moved through.
Dead wood greater than 75mm diameter will generally be removed for
firewood. Leaves and small branches left after firewood harvesting
generally break down in 3 or 4 years. Generally only patches of the
forest will be harvested [thinned] in any one year, to avoid harvest litter
increasing the fire risk across the whole plantation.
Thinned and managed forest is less dense, and keeps all trees actively
growing, and so tends to produce less dry sticks than very heavily
stocked eucalypt stands.
How did this project come about?
In about 2003 Campbell Holt suggested we plant a community woodlot,
but with the Toxic Dump proposal and the HREP project there wasn’t
energy for this project for a while.
Howard Myers kept the idea of a community forest alive. David Arnold
took the role of steering the project in 2006, and has prepared the
planting plan.
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