Dave Rawlins is a bush regenerator and ecologist working on a property in the headwaters of Marshalls Creek at the Pocket. The 40 ha property was once cleared for bananas and grazed. It was heavily run down being degraded from intact rainforest and wet sclerophyll forest to areas of bare soils and landslips. The current property owners’ intention is to support biodiversity conservation and, 20 years ago, the owners engaged Dave and others to focus on regenerating the land.

We target controlling the weeds in the highest quality areas of the bush first. This is the least amount of work, as most weeds are more readily shaded out and there is native seed present in the soil allowing for natural succession processes to take place. We expand from these areas to link those higher quality sites to give them more resilience.

 It’s much easier for Dave and the team to convert areas of woody weeds such as Camphor Laurel and Lantana back to forest than it is to convert exotic grasses. Lantana colonises the grassland and this starts the succession process. Most trees cannot germinate in a thick grass layer but once you have Lantana and Camphor Laurel this breaks the dominance of grass. An area dominated by grass also has a soil microbiology dominated by bacteria whereas an area with Lantana and Camphor has more fungi in the soil due to biodegrading woody debris and mulch. Rainforest plants can grow much better in this soil.  Frugivore birds also have been feeding in the Lantana and Camphor trees bringing native seeds in their poop.

We have planted some trees but we get a huge number of trees that come up naturally through assisted regeneration. We occasionally plant species of trees such as Eucalypts or Brushbox that wouldn't naturally recruit in an area where rainforest pioneers are dominating. We also spread around seed to increase diversity but in total have only planted around 500 trees. We also target priority weeds such as Maderia Vine, Privet and Cherry Guava that may threaten the site in the long term.

From a young age Dave has always been interested in nature and felt a need to protect it.  He studied Ecology and when he moved to Byron Shire in 2001 he began work in bush regeneration. “There is just so much to learn, every site has new types of plants and a new challenge”.  To Dave, learning how the succession process of nature works is just fascinating.

Dave has facilitated many community Landcare plantings over the years and sees how important community involvement is. “You see how much people like to connect to nature and this helps them realise that there is lots they can do to help repair the environment. When we reflect on how degraded the landscape was and then on how much we have repaired in just the last few decades, it is empowering for people to see how much can be done” .

Simone is the co-owner of a 10 acre property in Blindmouth Valley.  She has been the custodian since 2017 and has been working to steadily regenerate the land with others who have bush regeneration and permaculture knowledge. “As a custodian of the land one of the best things I can do is reparation because this is stolen land that was never ceded so its a contested space to try and make good”  

The intention of the property is to to create a creative community, of people with diverse skills and knowledge, but also to provide access and inclusion for  non-human species.  “We use our property to provide habitat not only for people but also for flora and fauna and to participate in something bigger than ourselves”.

Simone wanted to be part of the solution, to care for country in the best way she knew how,  using the knowledge and networks that she had to accelerate regenerative development.  “I'm a theatre artist so this is a different form of meaning making,  when we heal the land it heals us back and keeps us in touch with what is real”. 

Special occasions and birthdays are celebrated with plantings;  60 trees for Joey’s 60th and 30 trees for Clark’s 30th.  The property is part of a community working group of 12 families that do a blitz on one property each month over the year. In May 2022 around 25 people planted 250 rainforest trees along an ephemeral creek to eventually link up to Middle Pocket Nature Reserve. We are doing it herbicide free so trees are heavily mulched with cardboard and woodchip and spaced so a mower can maintain between them. 

The community has planted 450 trees with another 250 to plant this autumn from a Land for Wildlife grant.  It is estimated that these 700 trees will sequester an average of 3.9 Tonnes of CO2 per year over their lifetime. 

“I get deep satisfaction in knowing that I am one small part of a movement of passionate dedicated people who really want to right the wrongs. I don't have kids so these trees are like my babies and I get so much out of watching them grow and knowing that they will continue beyond my lifetime. My wise mum always said “leave it better than when you found it” so bush regeneration and carbon sequestration is one way to do our bit”. 

Joey co-manages a 10 acre property with his ex-partner, neither of them are farmers rather artists with an ideological approach to sustainability, creativity, art and culture. 

“I discovered that our neighbours small herd of 7 cows had completely depleted the grass in her 4 acre paddock in winter and there was nothing for the cows to eat”. Their neighbour has the cows as lawn mowers not income and,  as Joey has large area overgrown with setaria grass it was only logical to have the cows do the work rather than slashing it twice a year.  

“So I went to a few seminars about rotational cell grazing and it sounded amazing”. The principle is to have cows in a small (2-3 acre) paddock for a short period of time and then rotate them onto the next one giving each paddock around 40 days rest depending on the growing season.  The soil diversity improves through moderated fertilisation from manure and urine and through the addition of organic matter (carbon) from the grass roots that sloth off when the upper plant is grazed, all this boosts the microbial activity and improves the soil. 

‘I then realised there were another 3 neighbours with fenced overgrown paddocks who are also not farmers.  All the paddocks are very close and there is one crossroad at the end of the road where all the paddocks come together so rotating the cows is not hard.  Each owner pays for their own fencing and gates and helps move them around. 

“We are still really at the beginning of this and at the moment we are still dragging troughs from field to field, learning about the winter/summer rotation, the size of the herd and the practicality of the fences, gates and water. 

With 5 neighbours and a herd of 9 adult and 4 new calves on a combined area of 15 acres everyone is enthusiastic about the principle. As neighbours we meet more often and talk about practical things and this is a social benefit. 

There is a combination of hard and electric fencing which will short if the setaria grass touches it so they are going to try controlling it with a biodegradable herbicide. “ I am very interested in trying to seed other grass species to increase diversity diversity and also feeding the cows seaweed which reduces the amount of methane gas from their manure”.

We found Lauren working in her productive food garden in Blindmouth Valley during the Decade of Ecological Restoration, she is a permaculturalist whose job is to teach people how to build and work with soil to grow wonderful food and flowers. 

“Regenerative for me means organic, taking as little from the land as possible and giving back as much as possible during that process, by making natural fertilisers from the supposed ‘waste’ we close that loop”.  Lauren explained.

“My philosophy is to have a minimal impact on the planet and space around me as I possibly can and particularly in food.  We know that food production is the cause of many problems so I'm trying to combat this by teaching others because if we all know how to grow food in a regenerative manner then lots of little actions make up big action” 

Lauren’s inspiration for this work came 12 years ago, when she was living in Brazil after doing a Masters of International Community Development. She was witnessing lots of environmental degradation and then saw documentary about re-greening a degraded landscape using permaculture principles. This was her ah-ha moment where she realised that “we do not have to choose between humans or nature, we can have it all!  We just have to watch and understand Nature and how she works then follow natural law and common sense”

Organic matter is increased in Lauren’s soil by either cutting back plants back once they have finished feeding us, leaving the roots in the ground to die back or by taking that plant and composting it down to turn it into a different form of organic matter to feed microbes which play a major role in the chemistry and biological processes that happen in the soil.  “I am constantly feeding microbes, if you feed microbes you feed the pants that feed the people”

“As plants take carbon from the atmosphere, they put it into their structure and as I put those structures back into the soil their carbon is then broken down and trapped in the soil. Soil is a wonderful matrix and web of interactions between the elements, carbon being just one of them, the more organic matter you put into your soil, the more microbial activity you have and the more carbon your soil can store”  Soil structure is improved, nothing gets leached and you can support more life, store more carbon and it just continues to improve. 

“In my perennial systems I crop and drop as another way of increasing soil carbon, when Im pruning I chop and drop leaving the cut up branches to biodegrade or when I pull weeds I put them back down to  mulch and protect the soil” 

Lauren creates gardens that are self-caring by using these practices.  Poly cropping (planting lots of companion plants together) and increasing organic matter and soil carbon helps reduce disease and pests and retains more water and nutrients.  I don't have to water every day and honestly I don't have a lot of time for any one garden so I create a healthier, less needy food gardens that are not a hassle or a big job. This is what I want to show people. 

Lauren’s long term aspirations is to have a little plot of degraded land to regenerate, somewhere that needs some love because she does not need a piece of paradise because she knows how to give that love and create paradise.   

Wren McLean - ZEB's Replant Co ordinator

I caught up with Eco-Recharge bush regenerator Edward Phillips who was working with colleague Dom Trucillo in a riparian planting along Blindmouth Creek, Main Arm behind Mullumbimby. While discussing the project a vulnerable White-eared Monarch began vocalising loudly from the 15m canopy making sure its presence and its appreciation of its regenerating habitat known. 

Ed works as a full-time bush regen supervisor with a small team of 2-5 people across Byron, Kyogle and Ballina Shires in many different vegetation types;  wetlands, koala carbon plantings and riparian corridors. 

The 6ha site they are regenerating today is an establishing 10-15m high wet rainforest riparian corridor along a 1km stretch of Blindmouth Creek, in addition to the rare monarch bird, Ed and team have been visited by a wide variety of other birds, a red-necked wallaby and lots of interesting invertebrates and had spotted a catfish in the nearby deep pool during smoko.  15 years ago this was part of a degraded cow paddock with eroded banks, dominated by camphor laurel and supporting very little diversity. This planting is now at the peak of its carbon drawdown and estimated to be drawing down around 109 tonnes of atmospheric carbon per year. 

The site has not had any maintenance work for 5 years so the team is sweeping through, cutting and painting the trunks of cestrum, ochna, privet, camphor laurel and cats claw, madeira vine and morning glory vines with herbicide. New weed seedlings at the site will then be sprayed and two locations where the canopy has not established and the sunlight is stimulating weed growth, and the sites where madeira and cats claw were found,  will be subject to follow up weed work in the next 6 months.  

Ed expects it may be 5 years until the next maintenance run.

Trailer for Good Fire Sequesters Carbon

Two passionate local carbon drawdown champions, fire ecologist Dr Andy Baker and Bundjalung cultural fire practitioner Oliver Costello, encourage us to befriend fire and use it as a regenerative force rather than allow it to be an uncontrolled destructive one.  They share their knowledge of the multiple benefits of reinstating cool mosaic burning in open forest ecosystems and while it may seem counterintuitive, good fire actually plays a crucial role in the global carbon cycle. The CO2 drawn down by a forests vigorous regrowth after a fire is equivalent to the smoke emissions created during the fire. The charcoal created by good fire, which is almost pure carbon, is additional and is then locked away long-term in our soils, rivers, wetlands and oceanic sinks. 

Watch and share this one minute, social media friendly version of the film and head to the website to watch the full version.

CO2 Drawdown Stories

 

Zero Emissions Byron’s ‘C02 Drawdown Stories’ is a quest to find and share Byron Shire’s most effective carbon sequestration projects and the dedicated, determined champions who are driving them. 

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Episode 2: Good Fire Sequesters Carbon

Two passionate local carbon drawdown champions, fire ecologist Dr Andy Baker and Bundjalung cultural fire practitioner Oliver Costello, encourage us to befriend fire and use it as a regenerative force rather than allow it to be an uncontrolled destructive one.  They share their knowledge of the multiple benefits of reinstating cool mosaic burning in open forest ecosystems and while it may seem counterintuitive, good fire actually plays a crucial role in the global carbon cycle. The CO2 drawn down by a forests vigorous regrowth after a fire is equivalent to the smoke emissions created during the fire. The charcoal created by good fire, which is almost pure carbon, is additional and is then locked away long-term in our soils, rivers, wetlands and oceanic sinks. 

Watch and share the film below and if you are a resident of Broken Head or the Koonyum Range region ZEB and the landcare groups of Wilsons Creek, Huonbrook and Broken Head invite you to attend your local live Good Fire event to network with your neighbours and begin planning cool fire burns.  The tickets are free but numbers limited so please only book if you are a resident of the appropriate area and can definitely attend.  See details below and please advise via the Eventbrite contact function if you book but later discover you wont be able to attend so if there is a waiting list this can be managed to ensure maximum benefit from the events.

Zero Emissions Byron’s ‘C02 Drawdown Stories’ is a quest to find and share Byron Shire’s most effective carbon sequestration projects and the dedicated, determined champions who are driving them. 

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Episode 1: Biodiverse Reforestation Sequesters Carbon 

Celebrating the work of carbon drawdown champion Claire Oelrichs who has self funded the planting 50,000 trees since 1991 on her property in Cooper Shoot near Bangalow. Using the fullCAM methodology, Zero Emissions Byron has estimated that she sequesters CO2 equivalent to the annual emissions of 250 cars and over 27 years has drawn down approximately 15,000 tonnes of CO2. Claire’s personal restoration project here in the Northern Rivers has directed her life toward implementing CO2 drawdown projects in National Parks in Sumatra and Aceh, Indonesia. In this Decade of Ecological Restoration we need characters such as Claire to inspire us all to take action and maximise the drawdown potential of our land.