Tree-plantings are seed homecomings

FIVE-hundred trees and lower-storey shrubs will be planted in the Katy Ryans Road precinct of Woowookarung Regional Park this week.

Friends of the Canadian Corridor’s Jeff Rootes said specific species currently missing from the land’s natural regeneration process will be planted on Sunday, 8 and Monday, 9 August during three COVID-safe volunteer working bees.

“We’re planting just north of the road in an area that was previously gorse-infested,” he said.

“There’s a really good wet area, so we’re planting some Yarra gums which are endangered, quite a bit of messmate, and quite a lot of shrubs.

“Parks Victoria used an echo-blade machine to remove the gorse three years ago, so now we’re moving in to replant.”

When each tree and shrub is introduced to the ground during the working bees, it will be their homecoming.

All of the plants have been grown locally from seeds collected at Woowookarung Regional Park.

“The wonderful people at the Ballarat Community Tree Nursery on Gillies Street are the ones who grow these things,” Mr Rootes said.

“It’s the most fantastic little operation, turning out 15,000 trees a year. The natural environment knowledge that is around in Ballarat within volunteers and enthusiasts is just amazing.

“These are the people that stitch things together.”

A third of the trees and shrubs will be planted during each working bee. Volunteers will work from the west end, along the thin paddock, connecting “remnant patches of vegetation,” and a wildlife corridor.