The Lennon Family Regeneration Project
We headed out to Jake’s family home at Eltham to check out some remnant rainforest and new plantings. He was keen to educate us about the various stages of rainforest regeneration and the strategy they use.
Jake’s main motto for rainforest plantings is “shade, shade, shade!”
This involves planting fast growing pioneer species like brown currajong to quickly provide enough shade and ground cover to prevent significant weed growth.
Then all it takes is a combination of birds and the wind to begin the natural process of seed dispersal and germination.
One of the best things we learnt this morning was that camphor laurel (the bastard weed) can’t germinate in shade.
As we’ve mentioned before, part of the regen process is to poison camphor which kills it without removing the stag (the dead standing tree). Dead trees provide an ideal perch for rainforest residents like the Wompoo, who can sit there and poo our vital rainforest seeds from the fruits they’ve eaten while also being able to see any potential predators around. The trunk also provides protection and assistance for pioneering native seedlings as they begin to establish themselves.
A good looking stag (the dead standing tree) that provides a great perch for native birds and wildlife.
Jake planted his first trees as a 16 year old to earn some cash for an electric guitar and he’s still here 14 years later and able to see some of the fruits of his and his family’s labour. He hopes that many of the old trees are still there when he dies so he’s working to create a buffer from the strong winds that blow across open pastoral land to collide with their patch. Old trees are used to a big canopy where the trees protect each other in a wider community but because their plot is fairly small and isolated it remains quite fragile.
On the hot day that it was, the cool air that floated through even the young rainforest areas was enough to remind us how crucial rainforest is as a natural climate controller – the best one there is really!
