Thousands of trees planted in the Clare Valley by Green Army
Over the last four months 14,000 native trees and shrubs have been planted by the Clare Valley Green Army team, local landholders and project partners.
On 27 July and 5-6 August, large scale planting days were held at four properties to revegetate more than 30ha of land, with 25 Green Army participants from the Clare Valley, Yorke Peninsula and Wakefield council areas joining together to plant more than 9000 seedlings.
Natural Resources Northern and Yorke Community Ranger Denni Russell said the Green Army was supported by project partners including Conservation Volunteers Australia, Greening Australia, Blyth Community Nursery and Upper Wakefield Landcare Group.
"As part of this project Natural Resources Northern and Yorke hosts a Clare Valley Green Army team made up of young locals who undertake on-ground work," Ms Russell said.
"The project aims to restore woodland buffers and linkages between remnant vegetation, establish back-up populations for six flora species that are listed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act and enhance habitat quality and connectivity for a suite of declining woodland birds."
The CVA team has recently completed the first six-month round of an 18-month project involving 16 properties including wineries, private farming land and public land throughout Yacka, Blyth, Armagh, Clare, Watervale, Mintaro and Penwortham.
Tom Fahey from Conservation Volunteers Australia said the Green Army provided an excellent opportunity for local young people to gain work experience.
"The Green Army not only enables participants to make a real difference to the environment, it is also a good stepping stone to get into hands-on work," Mr Fahey said.
Round two starts on 5 September and aims to revegetate an additional 20ha by late spring through direct seeding delivered by Greening Australia and tubestock planting by the Clare Valley Green Army team.
The next stage of the project will promote more diversity of understory plants, with planting scheduled for winter 2017.
The Green Army works with a 20 Million Trees Program which is funded by the Australian Government through the Northern and Yorke Natural Resource Management Board.
Anyone interested in joining future Green Army teams can contact Tom Fahey from Conservation Volunteers Australia on 0407 704 227 or visit http://conservationvolunteers.com.au/green-army/south-australia for more information.
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