Improving Landscape Scale Strategies for Restoration

 Brunswick Valley Landcare Inc.

 Floodplain forests have been cleared on the north coast of NSW and revegetation of sclerophyll floodplain communities on cleared land is expensive and methods for stimulating recruitment poorly understood. These floodplain sclerophyllous communities contain important koala food tree species. This project tested methods to germinate native trees via seed fall onto plots adjacent to remnant sclerophyll vegetation using different treatments including fire. The aim was to determine the most efficient methods for the regeneration of Melaleuca quinquenervia, Eucalyptus robusta and E. tereticornison cleared and previously grazed paddocks.

Of the different regeneration treatments trialed, bare soil and fire treatments were the most effective. Most of the germinants were close to the parent tree. Bare soil was considerably easier to implement than fire and had more successful results. The results will inform cost effective methods for regeneration of Koala food trees.