Sandhill Pine Woodland restoration project

My name is Andrea Cashmere
I work for Western Local Land Services
I’m a Senior Land Services Officer
on the natural resource management team
I’m based in Hillston
about a hundred kilometres northwest of Griffith
In 2021 Western Local Land Services was successful
in gaining funding from the NSW Environmental Trust
to do a sandhill pine restoration project
the sandhill pine community is actually
an endangered ecological community
which means that its under threat of becoming extinct
so this project is an effort to try and turn the health around
of that community
the main elements of the project are
fencing
the collection of seed
the removal of threats
so, for example, boxthorn and rabbits
and then finally putting the seeds into the ground
and then
the last part is waiting
...waiting for it to rain
so the main threats to the sandhill pine community
are
the pine itself needs a really hot
wet summer to germinate
and it doesn’t like any competition
so that’s our first one
then we have this beautiful sandy soil
that rabbits like to live in
and so anything that may germinate
is nipped off by them
beautiful sandy soil, again perfect for weeds
boxthorn, spiny burr-grass
Paterson’s curse, which also inhibits
regeneration of pine and other native species
our stock love to shelter under the trees
remembering that these communities are found in
usually in grasslands
so there’s not much shade out there
so stock tend to congregate under the shade
and of course we use cypress pine as a
building resource for hundreds
well since colonisation
a lot of our fences are made out of
cypress pine
a lot of our homesteads are made out of cypress pine
obviously we can’t do project like this
without the support of our landholders
the three landholders that were involved in this project
understand and value the benefits of having
native vegetation on their property
obviously without them we couldn’t have done this project
the biggest part of the project was collecting the seed
for the direct seeding which is the method we used to
restore the sandhill pine
the process of collecting seed is quite labour intensive
but also very enjoyable, very therapeutic
thing to do
so you know, you have to keep an eye on
your species you’re wanting to collect
all year round
so you’re looking at when they’re flowering
you’re watching rainfall
you’re watching temperature
and you’re identifying trees even before they’ve
set seed, that have the potential to collect from
so yeah it’s an ongoing process
and then, normally native seed is ripe in summer
so yeah it’s hot work, because you collect in summer
so once the seed is harvested
we took it down to
Murray LLS
Murray cleaned the seed for us
and stored it for us until we were ready
to do the direct seeding
before we could direct seed, the landholders actually
slashed the lines for us where the seed trail would be laid
we had an Aboriginal cultural heritage survey
conducted on every property
because we would be disturbing the soil
and therefore potentially disturbing sites
so we had traditional owners come back
on country and do that for us
and we found sites
as you’d expect to find on a sandhill pine community
so once the sites were prepared
Murray came up with their machinery and we
mixed the seeds
there was twelve different species
we didn’t just use pine
so we used other over-storey species like she-oak
hakia, about four different acacias
and then a suite of under-storey
smaller species
so it was a really diverse mix
so we fenced of a hundred and thirty-four hectares
the landholders erected eleven kilometres of fencing
to protect sandhill pine communities
we collected eighty-one kilograms of native seed
about eighteen different species
and we ran
two-hundred and thirty kilometres of direct seeding lines
we produced a brochure on how to actually collect
the species that belong on a
sandhill pine community
and we also had a wonderful workshop
where we got an expert to come and
talk about the community in depth
and ways that we can help it
obviously a big part of the project
is not just the direct seeding
but it’s the extension of that
it’s the raising awareness of the sandhill pine community
collecting seed
identifying plants
talking about grazing management
and there’s a whole community of people who love
sandhill pine
it’s not just this little project in Hillston
so there’s other landholders around Hay and Conargo
as well as Hillston
fencing of sandhills, direct seeding them
protecting them for future generations
and I think that’s a great part of the project
is that extension and that raising awareness of the community
so in the end that is what will stop the community
from becoming extinct
but also see it into the future as a
thriving
regenerating
community.