Burnside and Trees for Life grow trees for fire affected properties

In the summer of 2019/20, large areas of both the Adelaide Hills and Kangaroo Island experienced devastating bushfires. The City of Burnside assisted both the emergency response and clean-up of both areas through contribution of staff, equipment and expertise.

To assist in the replanting and provision of wildlife habitat, Council’s Biodiversity nursery program, managed by Dr Mark Ellis and assisted by a team of dedicated nursery volunteers, collaborated with the non-government organisation Trees For Life Inc (TFL), through their Bushfire Recovery project.

Mark said that such an initiative had to be part of a coordinated response to landscape restoration. “It was important that we were in partnership with an organisation that had links to landholders and volunteers in the affected areas,” he said. “Trees For Life already has the established networks in these areas and very importantly could provide the locally sourced seed that we used to grow the trees. Replanting local native species is essential to ensure they are adapted to the local environment.”

The nursery grew 500 trees, indigenous to the Adelaide Hills, for distribution to Adelaide Hills landholders in fire affected areas.

TFL managed the program linking landholders who order the trees, undertake preparation works, plant and maintain the trees. TFL also have a program of providing volunteer assistance to landholders to undertake planting.