What happens after you adopt a tree?
Below is an outline of the 5 steps that were carried out at the Pilot Planting at Renrow Park, NSW on Sunday 27th March.
This pilot planting was carried out be volunteers, many of whom adopted their trees at the launch on Australia Day!
Why did we choose Renrow Park?
The Pilot Planting was hosted by David and Tina Allen on their property near Bowral. The property lies in the traditional lands of the Gundungarra people, bounding the Tharawal lands.
This property was selected as the owners were keen to have more native birds, like the Black Cockatoo return to their property.
The Allen family were also happy to continue to monitor the health of the plantings and send photos of them as they progress.
Renrow Park is on the Wombeyan Caves Road, 19 kilometres from Mittagong and Bowral in the beautiful Southern Highlands. This area was devastated in the 2020 bushfires that swept through the region.
Renrow Park lies in an important habitat corridor.
Wildlife conservation can be integrated with farm management in many ways and can provide numerous benefits such as:
• Insects & birds are important for pest control and crop pollination
• Native Eucalyptus attract Koalas
• Trees and shrubs provide shelter for stock
• Native pastures offer reliable, low-maintenance grazing
• Native vegetation minimises erosion and soil loss
• Healthy native ecosystems also make the property a more attractive and interesting place to live and work.
The Glossy Black Cockatoo, in particular is one of the more threatened species of cockatoo in Australia and are listed as vulnerable in NSW.
At a size of only 45-50 cm in length they are the smallest Glossy Black-Cockatoo in Australia.
Males have brownish heads and chests, with red tail feathers. Females have yellow patches on their heads and necks, with orange-red barred tail panels. Both have small crests with a broad and bulbous bill for cracking open tasty cones.
BirdLife Australia says the cockatoos have been pushed out of their usual habitats by a combination of drought and the summer bushfires .
These Cockatoos only eat the cones from a few species of She-Oak trees.
The She-Oak is a many-branched shrub or small tree, 3 to 15 metres tall (though most plants in NSW are less than 8 metres), corky bark.
The branchlets are up to 30 centimetres long and 2 to 3 millimetres in diameter, with the leaves reduced to about 16 minute teeth that circle each joint.
The flowers are small, the fruits are clustered in a cone 10 to 20 millimetres long.
Black cockatoos like the She-Oak cones, while finches and rainbow lorikeets are more interested in the seed.
Willie Wagtails, Pee Wees and Butcher birds all favour the She-Oak's for nesting trees.
The Red Stem Wattle flowers are a pollen source for native moths, butterflies, and other insects. Insect-eating birds are also attracted to them.
Seed-eating birds attracted, including parrots and native pigeons.
Foliage provides good cover for small birds.
The shrubs or trees have an erect to bushy habit and typically grow to a height of 2 to 10m and have lightly fissured brown bark. It blooms between July and November producing pale to bright yellow flowers.
Following seed pods form that are straight and flat with a length of 4 to 12 cm and are 6 to 9 mm wide and are often covered in a powdery white coating.
Different species attract different birds and those that love wattles include Crimson Rosella, Black Cockatoos, Red Wattle-bird, Superb Fairy-wren, various King Parrot, and Singing Honey Eaters.
The native Australian Narrow Leaved Peppermint Gum forms a dense canopy with dark green leaves which have a peppermint scent when crushed.
Trees typically grow to a height of 10-50m. It has rough, finely fibrous or flaky grey bark on the trunk and branches, usually smooth grey bark on branches thinner than 80mm.
It is a beautiful tree with small creamy white flowers borne from October to January.
An important habitat tree, providing nectar and seed for insects and birds, nesting hollows. Tree-creepers are attracted to insects in the bark.
This form of eucalyptus is one of the varieties used in essential oil production and is used to support local essential oil businesses.
Eucaluptus Radiata is also known as a source of food for the Koala and with it's high branches makes a wonderful habitat .
The seeds were sourced from the Menai Wildflower Volunteer Nursery in the Sutherland Shire.
Fortunately, for the Pilot Planting the Menai Wildflower Volunteer Nursery had tubestock (saplings) available as only 200 were required for the Pilot Planting.
Normally it would take up to 6 months for the seeds to grow into tubestock once the correct seeds have been identified.
After the site was selected, and the tubestock sourced the following tasks were performed:
- Source plant guards , weed mats, tools, etc
- Allocate a Volunteer Co-ordinator
- Invite people who had adopted trees within a 2 hour travel window. Rotarians on the planning committee were also invited to attend. (In future plantings, Rotarians from the areas surrounding the planting site will be invited)
- Prepare the site – clear the area and use an auger to dig holes in preparation
- Send directions and details of the day to volunteers
- Arrange photographer and drone photographer to capture plantings
- Arrange for after planting get together in a local restaurant or pub
tree adoption certificate numbers
The table above shows the Tree Adoption Certificate numbers that were planted in the Pilot Planting at Renrow Park.
A database will be available soon to search for your tree planting location. In the meantime, if you have any questions about your Rotary Adopt-A-Tree Adoption Certificate please contact us,