Victorian Landcare Magazine - Spring 2024, Issue 88
In 1989 two friends, Maggie McLeod and Belinda Gross, had a wild idea – they pledged to plant one million Australian native trees. They wanted to protect the environment, prevent the decimation of old growth forests and reduce soil erosion of river systems.
Such a vast undertaking could not be done alone, so a call out was made to friends, neighbours and strangers. From this, TreeProject was born. The first public planting event, held at Yarra Bend Park in 1989 was a massive success.
According to Maggie, it was soon clear the idea was a winner.
“We knew we were on to something with identifying trees as a solution when over 700 people came, and 5000 plants were in the ground before lunch time,” Maggie said.
The idea evolved when they realised that buying native seedlings was expensive. They decided to develop a system where volunteers could be taught to grow native seedlings from seed in their backyard. After five or six months, these healthy, thriving seedlings were then taken out to landholders, forests, and communities to be planted by landholders or other groups of volunteers.
Maggie and Belinda’s goal of one million seedlings was met within 15 years, thanks to the support and commitment of a host of volunteers.
TreeProject is now a fully formed, non-profit, volunteer-based organisation leading the way in sustainable revegetation throughout Victoria by providing low-cost indigenous seedlings to landholders and Landcare groups.
TreeProject’s vision is to plant more indigenous plants to restore Victoria’s soil, waterways and climate. Native vegetation helps to prevent soil erosion, which can create heavy layers of sediment that stop streams and rivers from flowing freely. Native vegetation provides shade and shelter for farm animals and habitat for native animals, which increases biodiversity. Native vegetation can have a positive impact on climate change by sequestering carbon in the soil.
Many of the seedlings grown by TreeProject have been directed to bushfire-affected areas and to support the koala population, wildlife corridors and shelterbelts.
TreeProject also has a community education role – increasing the engagement of both urban and rural communities in environmental restoration.
The TreeProject calendar is broken up into three stages. Every summer, volunteer growers pick up a kit of soil, seed, forestry tubes and sand to take home. Each kit will propagate 336 healthy indigenous seedlings for revegetation and restoration projects. The growers nurture the seedlings for up to six months.
Above: An aerial view of a TreeProject revegetation project at Yarra Ranges in 2022.
In winter and early spring, the seedlings are collected by landholders and/or the Landcare groups that ordered the seedlings, for planting out by landholders or other groups of volunteers. This can involve community groups and corporate volunteers.
At the end of the planting season all the forestry tubes are taken back to our depot in Kensington to be washed, sterilised and filled again. Recycling our tubes ensures we keep as much plastic out of landfill as possible.
While we wait for the next order of plants to come in from landholders, more seed is collected and ordered, soil kits are packed, and new growers are trained to start the cycle again.
TreeProject partners with many different Landcare groups across Victoria and works closely to leverage their expertise in land management, species selection and local provenance.
Despite the hard work and the many challenges, the project has been a resounding success.
Individual landholders with small orders of less than 100 seedlings (who are members of a Landcare group) can submit requests to their local Landcare group who can then collate these into a larger group order to TreeProject. Landholders may also order a minimum of 500 seedlings directly through our website.
TreeProject relies heavily on the volunteer community. Many of our members are long-term volunteers, some with more than 20 years’ experience in tree growing, horticulture or land management. Others are residents of metropolitan Melbourne who are passionate about environmental restoration and want to contribute to rural Victoria.
We have many members who are educators who have set up growing kits in schools to teach children about nurturing native plants. Some of these children have grown up to become the next generation of TreeProject volunteers themselves.
The future for TreeProject will see us continue to improve our operational efficiency and increase the number of seedlings we can grow. We are excited about furthering our relationships with Landcare and environmental groups, sponsors, corporate volunteers, and other volunteers. We are also keen to further develop educational tools and support for the community to assist in propagating healthy indigenous seedlings for revegetation and restoration projects.
Above: Enthusiastic volunteers planting for TreeProject at Hoddles Creek in 2022.
TreeProject has now sown more than two million seedlings. Our reach has expanded to include growing communities in Bendigo and Geelong, and we have plans to launch another group in the Ovens region. Our past two seasons have been our biggest yet. In 2023 we grew 140,000 indigenous seedlings, representing 189 different species, propagated by 361 growers.
In 2021 Maggie McLeod was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for her services to conservation and the environment. TreeProject will continue to honour Maggie’s vision and dedication. Now in our 34th year TreeProject has evolved into a community of like-minded landholders, growers and volunteers all striving towards the same goal: to revegetate Victoria – one tree at a time.
Susi Millton is Manager of TreeProject.
For more information and to order seedlings go to www.treeproject.org.au