Regeneration OR Revegetation

When native vegetation is highly degraded or has been totally cleared so that natural regeneration is no longer possible, revegetation is necessary to reinstate native vegetation and habitat.

The choice of regeneration or revegetation will depend on the size and nature of the site, the time and money available, and the purpose of the vegetation.

The most commonly used methods are planting and direct seeding. Additional methods for small areas include broadcasting seed by hand, brush matting, transferring leaf litter or plugs of topsoil and transplanting.  Advice from someone with local experience is valuable, as it can take trial and error to work out the most effective methods for each site. Revegetation can be costly in both time and money if the work is not planned and implemented well.

Remnant native vegetation:

Remnant woodland patches are often the most biodiverse places on a farm. They have generally experienced less disturbance, enabling native plants such as forbs, grasses, and shrubs to persist. Remnant patches will often contain trees of mixed ages, and habitat features such as fallen logs, dead trees and tree hollows

Patches of remnant native vegetation are important natural assets for farms. They can provide shade and shelter for livestock, havens for predatory insects that help control pest species, and refuges for pollinators of crops such as canola. They are also key habitats for a wide range of native animals and plants, increasing biodiversity.

Remnant vegetation can also be a great way to store carbon in the soil, stabilise soil and contribute to water infiltration, manage water tables, and reduce the affect of salinity. Not to mention acting as a wind, erosion, and evaporation break.

Large old trees:

Also known as paddock trees, are valuable assets that boost farm productivity and profitability. The most recognised value of trees on farms is providing shade and shelter from the wind for livestock. Shade and shelter are necessary to reduce the heat and cold stress experienced by livestock. This allows livestock to dedicate less energy to self-maintenance, which can result in improved farm productivity. They have been estimated to reduce windspeeds by up to 50%!

Energy expended by livestock to maintain a regular body temperature diverts valuable energy away from desired production gains, such as live weight gain, milk production, or wool growth; in fact, dairy cows have been shown to increase milk production by 17% with paddock trees that provide shelter!

Production gains from shelter provided by paddock trees is not limited to livestock, old tree areas also been shown to: improve soil structure and quality as wind and water erosion is reduced, improve salinity management as trees reduce water logging, increase soil water infiltration by helping maintain moisture in the landscape, as well as increase pasture growth and reduce pasture desiccation in dry periods due to the shelter created.

Large trees play home to an abundance of diverse wildlife including insect pollinators and natural pest controls. Native bats, lizards, and birds that call large trees home will prey on common farm pests.

Native Grasses:

Native grasses have adapted to our specific environments. Their germination, growth and survival strategies make them so resilient to our climate, the most notable feature being their seed dormancy, they all germinate at different times which makes them great for year-round ground cover.

Native grasses are known for their fibrous root systems, fibrous stems, and small amounts of leaf matter. This makes them less optimal for livestock feed but perfect for building soil structure, reducing wind and water erosion, and fire risk. The roots bind with the soil reducing the effect of wind and water erosion, the stems also act as a surface-based water filter, catching moving

Native grasses also provide necessary habitat and a food source for an array of fauna species that like to live close to the ground. These include lizards, ground dwelling and seed eating birds and some frog species, these friendly faunas will prey on common farm pest.

Perhaps, one of the more significant bonuses on native grasses is their water holding capacity, particularly in a riparian zone. Native grasses assist in consuming excess water that finds its way to the riparian zone. As a rough guide, a foreshore with trees and understorey can consume an extra 30% of the available soil moisture than just trees. This can further reduce the water incidence of water logging and improve soil structure, as well as maintain soil moisture through the dryer months.

Shelter Belts:

Shelterbelts are strips of woody vegetation usually established between paddocks to reduce windspeeds and provide shade and shelter. Some older shelterbelts were strips of a single species of tree, these tree lanes provided some shelter. More recently establish shelter belts now include bushy understory which significantly increases their impact on the surrounding areas. These areas are slightly different to remnant vegetation and can encourage different varieties of native fauna.

Shelterbelts provide shade and wind protection for livestock by reducing windspeeds and windchills by up to 50%, which can reduce livestock mortality by up to 10%. Due to the reduction in energy required to maintain optimal body temperature, livestock are able to commit more energy to improve weight gain, wool and/or milk production and lower livestock nutrient requirements.

As shelter belts are often on the boarders of properties they provide a nice biosecurity barrier, by helping in preventing livestock from neighbouring farms having direct contact with your land and livestock.

Pasture production is also known to improve with the use of shelter belts, this is due to the increased predatory insects and animals that prey on common pests that live in the shelter belts, as well as the increases soil fertility effects from the shelter belt. Shelter belts are a great way to naturally sequester carbon into the soil, while also mitigating the effect of soil erosion and secondary salinity.

Rocky Outcrops:

Rocky outcrops are natural areas of exposed bedrock found in many different landscapes. Large rocky outcrops are important for conserving the specialised plants and animals that use this habitat, harnessing water, contributing to soil nutrients and providing livestock with shelter from the wind and sun. They are naturally occurring and can play a beneficial role for a farm landscape.

These outcrops filter and slow water runoff, increasing water infiltration into the soil which increases soil moisture. Slowly releasing water back into the surrounding landscape through post-rain streams, springs and soaks aids in reducing soil erosion as well as improving overall soil retention and preventing water logging.

Rocky outcrops are areas of increased biodiversity which can provide great environmental services, by providing homes for bees and other native pollinators for crop pollination, and reptiles and birds for natural pest management. They can also provide a habitat for many native plant species that are now rare or extinct in the broader landscape, overall improving biodiversity.

With careful management and monitoring, rocky outcrops can be used as shelter for vulnerable livestock, specifically as during lambing as ewes will seek for a protected area to lamb away from predators.

Creek lines, Dams and other Riparian Zones:

Vegetation corridors along streams and rivers, known as riparian areas, hold enormous value for farming operations and are important assets for production and biodiversity, as well as carbon storage.

Planting vegetation to stabilise banks can aid in reducing the land lost to erosion and improves water quality. In particular, Native grasses filter nutrients and debris from surrounding paddocks to help prevent the contamination of water.

The vegetation slows runoff; the water to flows in slow-moving sheets rather than fast-moving channels, reducing erosion. Facilitates the formation of chain-of-ponds watercourses. Slowing flows during wetter periods, sediment is deposited at points along the creek line, causing a gentle build-up of barriers that act as natural weirs. In drier months, these barriers form deep pools at different points, so that the water is stored throughout the watercourse rather than all being deposited downstream, improving the water retention ability of properties during dry periods.

Arboreal animals, such as possums, and other native species prefer to breed in riparian areas, but need these areas to be well vegetated in order to do so to provide shelter. A variety of available habitats generated by the formation of deep pools can also lead to a greater diversity of native fish and frogs.

Where riparian areas have good vegetative cover, sediments are filtered and erosion is controlled. These components are also a major source of organic matter supporting aquatic biota and are a crucial component of the aquatic food web, in turn improving the overall health of our waterways.