Trees For Life is a registered

charity Charity may refer to: Common meanings * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sha ...

that protects and restores land in the bush, farms, and urban areas of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

. It runs many programs, the oldest involving volunteers growing seeds into small plants for planting by farmers and other landholders. It was formed in 1981 and now has 2000 volunteers.

Activities

The oldest and flagship Trees For Life program is the Tree Scheme. Landholders and farmers willing to plant trees, shrubs and grasses to revegetate their properties are matched with volunteers who grow the plants from seeds. There are around 500 such volunteers as of 2020. Seeds are collected from 42 zones around South Australia and tracked so that the seedlings can be planted near where the seeds were collected, maintaining

genetic diversity Genetic diversity is the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of a species. It ranges widely, from the number of species to differences within species, and can be correlated to the span of survival for a species. It is d ...

. Plantations may expand remnants of native vegetation, as well as create new forests, form

windbreak A windbreak (shelterbelt) is a planting usually made up of one or more rows of trees or shrubs planted in such a manner as to provide shelter from the wind and to protect soil from erosion. They are commonly planted in hedgerows around the ed ...

s and control erosion. Since 1994, the Bush For Life program has focused on protecting and restoring existing bushland. Volunteers are trained to identify and remove weeds, conserving over 300 sites covering more than . Other Trees For Life programs involve

direct seeding Sowing is the process of planting seeds. An area that has had seeds planted in it will be described as a sowed or sown area. Plants which are usually sown Among the major field crops, oats, wheat, and rye are sown, grasses and legumes are se ...

of large land areas, protecting the south-eastern red-tailed black cockatoo and silver daisy, helping people connect with local natural areas, offsetting carbon, and running the Westwood Nursery.

History

Trees For Life was established in 1981 two weeks after a visit from

Richard St. Barbe Baker Richard St. Barbe Baker (9 October 1889 – 9 June 1982) was an English biologist and botanist, environmental activist and author, who contributed greatly to worldwide reforestation efforts. As a leader, he founded an organisation, Men of ...

, the founder of the International Tree Foundation, then known as Men of the Trees. It was originally the South Australian branch of Men of the Trees, and became Trees For Life two years later. The first tree was planted in 1982 at One Tree Hill. By 2001, Trees For Life was one of the largest volunteer producers of native seedlings in the world, having grown 20 million seedlings; 1.5 million small trees were being grown by almost 2000 volunteers each year. 201 species were being grown including

melaleuca ''Melaleuca'' () is a genus of nearly 300 species of plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, commonly known as paperbarks, honey-myrtles, bottlebrushes or tea-trees (although the last name is also applied to species of '' Leptospermum''). They ...

acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as wattles or acacias, is a genus of about of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa, South America, and Austral ...

she-oak The Casuarinaceae are a family of dicotyledonous flowering plants placed in the order Fagales, consisting of four genera and 91 species of trees and shrubs native to eastern Africa, Australia, Southeast Asia, Malesia, Papuasia, and the Pacific Is ...

s, and all major

eucalypt Eucalypt is any woody plant with Capsule (fruit), capsule fruiting bodies belonging to one of seven closely related genera (of the tribe Eucalypteae) found across Australia: ''Eucalyptus'', ''Corymbia'', ''Angophora'', ''Stockwellia'', ''Allosyn ...

s. Over half the species were

understory In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as underbrush or undergrowth, includes plant life growing beneath the Canopy (biology), forest ca ...

plants such as shrubs and ground covers. Trees For Life was granted registered charity status on 3 December 2012. The number of seedlings produced reached 32 million by 2015. That year, 850 landholders placed orders, and had to pay around 15c per plant tube, compared to the retail price of A$2.50. In 2018, Trees For Life had sustained a 30 percent reduction in federal government funding from the Natural Heritage Trust via the National Landcare Program, and state government funding had also been reduced. This threatened projects such as the Paddock Trees Project which, in partnership with the Adelaide and Mt Lofty Natural Resources Management Board and under advice from

ornithologists __NOTOC__ This is a list of ornithologists who have articles, in alphabetical order by surname. See also :Ornithologists. A * John Abbot – US * Clinton Gilbert Abbott – US * William Louis Abbott – US * Humayun Abdulali — India * Joseph ...

, was revegetating land from Strathalbyn to Gawler. In 2020, it was announced that Trees For Life will co-ordinate and deliver all 6,500 tree plantings of the A$1.2 million Bushfire Recovery Paddock Tree Project. This would restore areas of the

Adelaide Hills The Adelaide Hills region is located in the southern Mount Lofty Ranges east of the city of Adelaide in the state of South Australia. The largest town in the area, Mount Barker, South Australia, Mount Barker, is one of Australia's fastest-growi ...

damaged by bushfire in December 2019, providing habitat for the brown treecreeper and diamond firetail birds, as well as benefiting agriculture. Also in 2020, it was announced that Trees For Life would be a partner in a $3 million Revitalising Private Conservation in South Australia program, which provides grants to landholders with a Heritage Agreement.

References

External links

* * {{cite news , title=Could a 'green army' save not just the environment, but economy from COVID-19? , first=Gabriella , last=Marchant , date=27 May 2020 , url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-27/farmers-and-environmentalists-push-for-a-green-army/12278290 , work=ABC News – Discusses the potential for funding for Trees For Life and other environmental and farming groups to stimulate the economy and provide employment during recovery from the

COVID-19 pandemic in Australia The COVID-19 pandemic in Australia was a part of the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first confirmed case in Aust ...

Environmental organizations established in 1981 Nature conservation organisations based in Australia Non-profit organisations based in South Australia