Farmers Talk Trees at Field Days and Forums

Posted on July 27th, 2023

Land managers and native trees are gradually becoming a package deal throughout central Queensland and a recent field day and webinar package delivered by Fitzroy Basin Association (FBA), and Resource Consulting Services (RCS), showed there are many more land managers looking to create the partnership on their properties.

Trees improve the productivity and profitability of grazing systems while also helping biodiversity to flourish. Unfortunately, Queensland has a long history of being cleared of trees for grazing so, for many land managers it means starting again with re-planting new native trees, or if the property has an existing seed bank in the soil, allowing natural regrowth.

The field day was hosted by Andrew and Meagan Lawrie at their Gogango property, Moora Plains. The Lawrie’s were able to allow native vegetation regrowth from an exisiting seed bank in the soil and are now seeing benefits of trees in their grazing system, including biodiversity and soil carbon.

The field day was an opportunity for hands-on learning that allowed land managers to see the results for themselves and was a driving factor behind the success of this series. The field day was followed by a webinar; attended by not only those from the field day but even more land managers from around the region who couldn’t make the trip to Gogango.

The additional attendees at the webinar are a great indication of the appetite of regional land managers wanting to improve natural functions of their properties. Many FBA events are created with the intent of hands-on learning, however, the webinar was a very successful addition to reaching more people and engaging different learning types and locations throughout the region.

In total, there were 129 event registrations and 78 attendees across the two events. Webinar attendees were asked to fill out a survey, 89% of attendees said they now have a better understanding of the role and function of trees in grazing and the benefits of restoring biodiversity.

FBA’s Project Officer Bethlea Bell, was thrilled with the event outcomes and hopes to work more with attending land managers in the future.

“It was an incredible opportunity to collaborate with RCS to establish pathways to success for landholders interested in increasing native vegetation on their properties. I look forward to helping implement planting plans with so many proactive land managers,” said Bethlea.

You can check out our guide by Steve Elson to learn how to Establish or Restore Native Trees in CQ Grazing Systems or contact FBA today for more information and help getting started.

This initiative is funded by the Queensland Government’s Natural Resources Recovery Program with support from from Fitzroy Basin Association and RCS.