Revegetation Tips

1. The best way to increase the amount of native vegetation on a farm is to fence off existing remnants and let natural regeneration do the job for you. Try to have at least 30% tree cover on your farm and allocate part of this area to wildlife habitat.

2. If you don't have any areas that can be expanded through regeneration, then you will have to plant trees. Both trees and understorey species need to be planted. Consider joining a local tree group and set up joint planting days with other farmers. Encourage your local nursery to stock local tree and shrub seedlings that have adapted to local conditions.

3. Make use of existing vegetation in windbreaks, along roadsides, and on neighbouring properties when choosing areas for planting or regeneration. Try to connect as using them as corridors is much more effective than planting isolated patches.

 

No

These planted areas are too spread out. Many smaller birds will not fly across cleared land to reach these areas. Some farms obviously need to plant in specific areas to deal with their topography, or problem areas such as groundwater recharge sites. In these cases, try and link these areas with corridors (far right), or clump planting's as much as possible (centre).

Yes

These planted areas are clumped near each other. This provides a large area of habitat, reduces edge effects, and is easier to fence off from stock.

Yes

These planted areas are still spread out but they are connected to each other by windbreaks or other strips of vegetation that provide corridors for movement.
In this example the farm only has a windbreak and one isolated block of vegetation. However, to the south is another block of vegetation on a neighbours property, and there is also remnant vegetation along the road to the east.

By extending windbreaks and planting a corridor to the isolated block, this farmer has significantly improved wildlife habitat in this area, and so improved the health of the trees in the patch.