At last it has rained, but whether we rely on tanks or town supplies, water is often a scarce and precious resource. There may be none to spare for watering young trees so it’s a good time to find out which are the true survivors. These become the key species in any future revegetation projects and will vary according to your particular environment and soil type. If your trees are predominantly from local sources they have a good chance of being sufficiently resilient to survive prolonged hot and dry periods such as the one we have just experienced.
The report card on the health of our rivers was released not long ago and unfortunately the news was not good. It appears that many of our rivers, particularly in the estuarine stretches, are no longer resilient enough to cope with the soil and nutrients being flushed into them during heavy rainfall events. It may be difficult to remember a really heavy rainfall event but it will happen again. The fresh water stretches of the Maroochy River still have a C rating, which is not brilliant on an A to F scorecard, but in the estuary the quality rating has dropped from C to D. We are in the headwaters of our coastal rivers and we need to aim for an A for the water flowing from the Range. That means very low silt levels and no fertiliser runoff. It can be challenging to prevent bank erosion on many of our fast flowing (when it does rain) headwater streams but we all need to do as much as we can.
Once soil moisture levels are again adequate it will be time to get out planting and to make sure the soil is well covered to prevent surface erosion. This can occur when water flows across bare soil and also from the direct impact of heavy rain. A good tree canopy helps to scatter large raindrops and leaf litter helps too.
BARUNG NATIVE PLANT NURSERY
Nursery opening times: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday – 9am -3pm
Riverside Centre office hours: 9am to 4pm (Re-opens January 11).
Next to Maleny Post Office, Riverside Centre
Phone 5494 3151
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