This week, representatives from organisations responsible for planting trees in the Ovens Valley joined us for a walk through our riparian plantings from two years ago. We looked at the plant growth, animal and weather damage and the effectiveness of our trialled 100% biodegradable 1.2m tree guards.
We were joined by North East CMA, Alpine Shire Council, HVP Plantations, Ovens Landcare Network, Victorian Alps Nursery at Ovens, TAFCO, Myrtleford Landcare, the major sponsor of this project, Bendigo Community Bank and members of the Upper Ovens Valley Landcare Group.
With representatives of Global Green from Melbourne, we looked at several environmentally considerate products. Our objective is to completely eradicate the use of corflute plastics in the Ovens Valley.
Our three project sites in Porepunkah, are at the confluence of the Ovens and Buckland rivers and at One Mile Creek. In total over 6000 trees have been planted as part of the riparian repair work reestablishing the native canopy along these degraded waterways.
Our projects are removing woody weeds and invasive non-native species including willows, box elders, sycamore, blackberries, hemlock etc.
At One Mile Creek about 700 plants have gone in in the last two years. Mostly swamp gum, red gum, Ovens Valley wattle, narrow leaf peppermint, red box and a few Omeo gums.
A dry summer and very dry autumn were challenging for the plants. Low water levels allowed the deer to cross into this area causing damage to some new trees and trees guards. Overall, the results are excellent with some trees in wetter area reaching 2m plus.
The results of using cardboard guards are very positive, easily comparable to using corflute. They have the advantage of being biodegradable whereas corflute plastics disintegrate into millions of pieces over time. A show of hands gave the Global green guards the vote of approval and the planting project a success.
UOVLG are grateful to have received financial support from the Bright Community Bank for this project and practical on groundwork by NECMA. The seedlings provided by the Victorian Alpine Nursery at Ovens prove time and time again of the value of using local native species.
Martyn Paterson, UOVLG Vice-President