Restoring an ugly hill into an ecosystem
April 5, 2024 8:03 AM Subscribe
They pooled their money to buy an ugly hill. Twenty years later, they're calling it paradise. A group of friends, dismayed about climate change, bought the most degraded piece of farmland they could find. Not to live on, or to make money from, but to transform into the bushland it once was.
In 2001, after three years of searching, the friends pooled together $19,000 (US $12,471 ) and purchased 134 acres (54 hectares) near Moonambel in central Victoria.
As soon as they saw the "ugly" hill, they knew they'd found what they were looking for.
"There were four living trees on it, lots of erosion and it was an eyesore in the community," Mr Meldrum said.
"It was calling out to us."
The area had been cleared and used for sheep grazing, and while it wasn't great agricultural land, it was useful for what we wanted, Mr O'Connor said.
"There were a few thistles but there wasn't actually much weedy stuff."
Fortunately, remnant native grasses and a seed population remained in the soil, he said.
The group undertook tree planting and seed collecting courses and became a community association called ReSource RICA, an acronym for Rehabilitation, Indigenous, Community, Access.
Unfortunately, Mr Meldrum said with a laugh, the group was sometimes confused for a mining company, "but our name means to re-source — as in go back to the beginning".
Members said the group's ethos was about enabling access to the site, especially for traditional owners, and anyone was welcome to be involved or visit as long as they respected the place.
"Not everyone has invested financially in caring for the land, for a lot of people it has been sweat equity or intellectual equity," Kaz Neilson said.
"It's challenging societal notions of access to land and land ownership," Ms Neilson said.
The land is Dja Dja Wurrung country, and Ms Neilson said the group engaged with traditional owners and kept them informed on the rehabilitation progress.
Over the years the group has experimented with different planting techniques, where to source their plants from, and destroyed countless rabbit burrows to ward off the pests.
Occasionally they made mistakes, like the time they sourced the wrong trees and planted the invasive Sydney Wattle instead of the Silver Wattle.
After lugging thousands of plants and tools up the formidable hill, the group — which now boasts about 50 members and additional supporters — believes the land has reached a point where it can mostly look after itself.
Ecologist and member Sid Larwill said the reintroduction of an ecosystem had resulted in species the group had not replanted, like native orchids, reappearing.
In 2018, the group achieved its goal of placing a Trust for Nature covenant over the land, ensuring it can never again be deforested or have stock run through it.
ReSource RICA is located near other bushland reserves and a national park, and Trust for Nature's north-west area manager David Dore said there were ecological benefits to the connectivity being built between existing native forests and the site.
"[Benefits] in terms of allowing genetic diversity and gene flow across the landscape and, of course, increasing habitat extent itself," he said.
Mr Dore said after years of hard work by the group, the ecosystem was starting to function as a whole.
In 2001, after three years of searching, the friends pooled together $19,000 (US $12,471 ) and purchased 134 acres (54 hectares) near Moonambel in central Victoria.
As soon as they saw the "ugly" hill, they knew they'd found what they were looking for.
"There were four living trees on it, lots of erosion and it was an eyesore in the community," Mr Meldrum said.
"It was calling out to us."
The area had been cleared and used for sheep grazing, and while it wasn't great agricultural land, it was useful for what we wanted, Mr O'Connor said.
"There were a few thistles but there wasn't actually much weedy stuff."
Fortunately, remnant native grasses and a seed population remained in the soil, he said.
The group undertook tree planting and seed collecting courses and became a community association called ReSource RICA, an acronym for Rehabilitation, Indigenous, Community, Access.
Unfortunately, Mr Meldrum said with a laugh, the group was sometimes confused for a mining company, "but our name means to re-source — as in go back to the beginning".
Members said the group's ethos was about enabling access to the site, especially for traditional owners, and anyone was welcome to be involved or visit as long as they respected the place.
"Not everyone has invested financially in caring for the land, for a lot of people it has been sweat equity or intellectual equity," Kaz Neilson said.
"It's challenging societal notions of access to land and land ownership," Ms Neilson said.
The land is Dja Dja Wurrung country, and Ms Neilson said the group engaged with traditional owners and kept them informed on the rehabilitation progress.
Over the years the group has experimented with different planting techniques, where to source their plants from, and destroyed countless rabbit burrows to ward off the pests.
Occasionally they made mistakes, like the time they sourced the wrong trees and planted the invasive Sydney Wattle instead of the Silver Wattle.
After lugging thousands of plants and tools up the formidable hill, the group — which now boasts about 50 members and additional supporters — believes the land has reached a point where it can mostly look after itself.
Ecologist and member Sid Larwill said the reintroduction of an ecosystem had resulted in species the group had not replanted, like native orchids, reappearing.
In 2018, the group achieved its goal of placing a Trust for Nature covenant over the land, ensuring it can never again be deforested or have stock run through it.
ReSource RICA is located near other bushland reserves and a national park, and Trust for Nature's north-west area manager David Dore said there were ecological benefits to the connectivity being built between existing native forests and the site.
"[Benefits] in terms of allowing genetic diversity and gene flow across the landscape and, of course, increasing habitat extent itself," he said.
Mr Dore said after years of hard work by the group, the ecosystem was starting to function as a whole.
This is beautiful and so inspiring. Friends of ours are doing something similar to this Ferncliffe Rewilding but their challenge are very different as their project is in subtropical Durban.
I seriously need to start (or join) something like this.
posted by Zumbador at 8:29 AM on April 5 [4 favorites]
I seriously need to start (or join) something like this.
posted by Zumbador at 8:29 AM on April 5 [4 favorites]
Beautiful!
I’m reminded of Sebastião Salgado and his wife ‘s project. He took a denuded dry valley and starting with planting a bunch of trees they began a positive feedback loop where the land could retain water and grow more plants. Birds returned, bringing seeds. Within 20 years it was a jungle. They even had large charismatic mammals (like a Jaguar) return. Even just trying to search for his name, it pulled up the efforts of so many individuals who have done the same just because they felt like it, from the Amazon to Borneo.
I was out chasing a rare, but locally abundant sparrow species in the Central Valley of California(heavily modified by farming). I wondered how I would know where to find them in these sporadic patches people reported them in. But there I was, and it was obvious what difference a fence line could mean: native sages and abundant sparrows on one side, overgrazed desolation on the other. I wonder what policies could be put in place to make it “cheaper” to “re-source” wild places, or at least so people could realize the benefits of a post-extraction ideology.
Semi-related previous.
posted by rubatan at 9:09 AM on April 5 [6 favorites]
I’m reminded of Sebastião Salgado and his wife ‘s project. He took a denuded dry valley and starting with planting a bunch of trees they began a positive feedback loop where the land could retain water and grow more plants. Birds returned, bringing seeds. Within 20 years it was a jungle. They even had large charismatic mammals (like a Jaguar) return. Even just trying to search for his name, it pulled up the efforts of so many individuals who have done the same just because they felt like it, from the Amazon to Borneo.
I was out chasing a rare, but locally abundant sparrow species in the Central Valley of California(heavily modified by farming). I wondered how I would know where to find them in these sporadic patches people reported them in. But there I was, and it was obvious what difference a fence line could mean: native sages and abundant sparrows on one side, overgrazed desolation on the other. I wonder what policies could be put in place to make it “cheaper” to “re-source” wild places, or at least so people could realize the benefits of a post-extraction ideology.
Semi-related previous.
posted by rubatan at 9:09 AM on April 5 [6 favorites]
I have eyed a few tracts of land that are worn down to the limestone by goat herds. I don't have the time or the resources to do anything about it, but it is a fantasy of mine to own them and then restore the land over time. Grasses would trap top soil, which would nurture more grasses. Scrub and trees would follow. It sounds simple, and I am sure it is not.
I am glad that someone is doing this sort of thing.
posted by Midnight Skulker at 10:01 AM on April 5 [3 favorites]
I am glad that someone is doing this sort of thing.
posted by Midnight Skulker at 10:01 AM on April 5 [3 favorites]
What an inspiring story! I'm going to talk to my naturalist girlfriend about doing this very thing. Anyone interested in the greater San Diego region?
posted by WatTylerJr at 10:25 AM on April 5 [5 favorites]
posted by WatTylerJr at 10:25 AM on April 5 [5 favorites]
Great story. I'm reminded of watershed restoration work using small check dams in AZ that similarly restored a functional ecosystem.
posted by pappy at 11:23 AM on April 5 [2 favorites]
posted by pappy at 11:23 AM on April 5 [2 favorites]
This is such a great story. It is amazing that this small group of people was able to do something on such a great scale. Makes me feel like doing the same for my postage-stamp yard is feasible.
posted by rednikki at 11:38 AM on April 5
posted by rednikki at 11:38 AM on April 5
There are aerial photos from the very beginning of powered flight that show San Diego was full of vernal pool prairies. And there are so many California vernal pool endemic species…
Chico had one of the main hazmat dumps for the state for a long time, and took another long time clearnibg and covering it, and rare wildflowers are coming back without anyone reintroducing them.
posted by clew at 11:46 AM on April 5 [1 favorite]
Chico had one of the main hazmat dumps for the state for a long time, and took another long time clearnibg and covering it, and rare wildflowers are coming back without anyone reintroducing them.
posted by clew at 11:46 AM on April 5 [1 favorite]
Thanks for posting chariot, I enjoy reading about land repair, and I love this "our name means to re-source — as in go back to the beginning". Glad to see they sought advice from the get go. Zumbador! Ferncliffe looks amazing, also looks like much of wetter NZ.
Indeed Midnight Skulker, it's never simple ... I'm managing something like this at the moment - about 3 Hectares (may grow to 4.5Ha), and it'll be planted by ten or so volunteers over about six years.
My brief was to develop an approach for re-establishment of native forest - with an aesthetic component and path network (plus land slope control), while also making for a good group activity with visible results as soon as possible.
I decided to run project using hexagon planting modules (there are many ways to design for planting - The Dynamic Landscape is a practically oriented book that explores some of this) - easy to read and teach from (I have a simple visual algorithm to assist plant placement). Gives near instant visual feedback as you can see what you've planted. Simplifies plant orders and site pre-work. I have five module types (landslip, gully, infrastructure, and two forest types), all modules are 345m² and have ~90 to 160 plants each.
I intend to do 14 modules this year, inc. two trial modules for plants I'm unsure of. Trying to get plants down to a minimum number as the plant you don't plant represents a huge cost/time saving - I see many over-planted sites. A big plant reduction method I use is to sow and establish a cover of wildfowers, or 'weeds', or one of the clovers, and then plant more sparsely into that.
posted by unearthed at 2:37 PM on April 5 [7 favorites]
Indeed Midnight Skulker, it's never simple ... I'm managing something like this at the moment - about 3 Hectares (may grow to 4.5Ha), and it'll be planted by ten or so volunteers over about six years.
My brief was to develop an approach for re-establishment of native forest - with an aesthetic component and path network (plus land slope control), while also making for a good group activity with visible results as soon as possible.
I decided to run project using hexagon planting modules (there are many ways to design for planting - The Dynamic Landscape is a practically oriented book that explores some of this) - easy to read and teach from (I have a simple visual algorithm to assist plant placement). Gives near instant visual feedback as you can see what you've planted. Simplifies plant orders and site pre-work. I have five module types (landslip, gully, infrastructure, and two forest types), all modules are 345m² and have ~90 to 160 plants each.
I intend to do 14 modules this year, inc. two trial modules for plants I'm unsure of. Trying to get plants down to a minimum number as the plant you don't plant represents a huge cost/time saving - I see many over-planted sites. A big plant reduction method I use is to sow and establish a cover of wildfowers, or 'weeds', or one of the clovers, and then plant more sparsely into that.
posted by unearthed at 2:37 PM on April 5 [7 favorites]
I love stories like this. One of my favorites is the Beara rainforest project in Ireland. Here's a good story about it from the Irish Times.
posted by Zonker at 5:07 AM on April 6 [4 favorites]
posted by Zonker at 5:07 AM on April 6 [4 favorites]
Mod note: [btw, this beautiful hill has been added to the sidebar and Best Of blog]
posted by taz (staff) at 2:20 AM on April 7 [3 favorites]
posted by taz (staff) at 2:20 AM on April 7 [3 favorites]
This kind of restoration can be done at any scale, even with a pot of wildflowers on an apartment balcony. I am working on an east -facing slope that must be kept cleared of trees. It involves adding wood mulch and clay to the thin, eroded soil. And weeding out the ferns and thorn bushes. These two plants are the most competitive in those conditions. By weeding them, a variety of less competitive but more productive plants can survive, like asters, goldenrods, figworts, milk vetch, bottlebrush grass. Ferns in particular create a colder and moister microclimate, which slows down decomposition. Now that this variety of plants is established, thousands of flying insects buzz around around the slope hopping from plant to plant. They in turn attract the wild turkeys, who in turn poop all over the mulch, accelerating its decomposition. Tons of fun for a 10m x 20m slope.
posted by SnowRottie at 8:09 AM on April 7 [1 favorite]
posted by SnowRottie at 8:09 AM on April 7 [1 favorite]
The best of side bar refers to this as"clapped out" farmland. I have used this phrase for decades without knowing it's etymology
posted by lalochezia at 5:41 AM on April 11
posted by lalochezia at 5:41 AM on April 11
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