After a fire burnt the trash of a prior “working for water” project, the landowner found himself with a bare area due to the severity of the fire. Knowing that this area would be prone to infestation of invader species like bramble, bugweed and wattle, the owner was keen to get some grass cover in, to out compete the invasives. The value to him, was an extra hectare of grazing, so he called in Upland River Conservation.

With a small team, we got the area seeded in just two days. The seed was raked in, and all available wattle trash was laid along the contours to further prevent erosion. While we were there we sprayed brambles supplied by DEFF as part of their herbicide assistance program.

The work was further supported by a discount on the price, enabled by our small pool of donor money, so that the farmer didn’t have to pay an arm and a leg for this work.

The area was recorded by GPS, and before and after photos taken. A simple report was sent to the farmer once we were done.

A few weeks later we received a picture of the germinating seed, and a thank you from the landowner.

We hope to see more of this private/public partnered work, where government support, landowner contribution and donor resources come together to provide a cost effective solution.

And posted exactly 1 year later….take a look at how it came out!