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#1
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Bradley method bush regeneration
I have just read "Bringing back the bush" by Joan Bradley, which tells
us that to revegetate land with native species we proceed with weed removal only at the pace that natives can take over the cleared space. Quite obviously leaving large areas cleared is just a waste as most likely you will just get your weeds back again. According to Bradley one does a limited area at a time and then wait for the local species to re-seed or otherwise propagate naturally. During the time that the natives and weeds are competing for the area you tip the balance in favour of the natives by removing the weeds until the natives can take over without help. Then you move on to the next area, so you incrementally push back the weeds from the most weed-free areas towards the most weed affected. Has anybody here actually done this? What were your experiences? How far was it from the revegetated area to natural bush? How long did it take per clearing cycle? What happens where the landscape has been non-natural (cleared for pasture) for 150 years? If all the land within kilometers is the same where will your natives propagate from? My impression is that the Bradley method as it is written is just not going to work in this situation and that I will need to judiciously introduce the replacment species otherwise the nearest replacement is going to always be weeds. I would really like some war stories drawn from experience here not just theory. David |
#2
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Bradley method bush regeneration
When they do bush regen here in Sydney, they 'cheat'. They use
glyphosate, and occassionally plant stuff as well. Parsley Bay Reserve in Vaucluse took 10 years to finish, using this method. It's an area about 600m by 100m. Jane |
#3
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Bradley method bush regeneration
I would really like some war stories drawn from experience here not just theory. David This site looks interesting http://www.nccnsw.org.au/bushland/reference/mbrw/ It came up in a Google search. Jane |
#4
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Bradley method bush regeneration
I'm a bush regenerator David, and have worked on a lot of different sites.
The Bradley method is how the industry cut it's teeth, and it is still the backbone to the industry ie minimal disturbance, work from good areas to bad, don't over clear etc etc. Modern day bush regeneration does include chemicals such as Glyphosate, and I wouldn't say it is cheating at all, especially when frilling, drilling and injecting, cutting and painting etc. Some spray efforts though I would agree are probably overkill (no pun intended) Some weeds respond really well to Glyphosate, some don't, so the "bradley" technique is still used quite extensively, it's much preferred not to use chemicals if possible. As for you questions about clearing rates and so on, that is incredibly variable, many things effect how much you clear, how often you need to return after primary weeding, etc. Drought, rain, floods, stormwater runnoff, fire, soil type, vegetation type (rainforest, woodland, grassy woodland, Open forest, heath, wetland) all these and more will impact or effect how often you work and how efective your weeding is. Some sites i have seen that have been cleared paddocks, with no nearby seed source, for approx 70 years (confirmed by aerial photos) have had "kiddy" fires burn the kikuyu, after which several Acacia species regenerated. It is more probably that there would be very little regneration in situations like this one, though you never know! Some seeds are very resilient. if you are looking for more information then you could try the AABR (Australian Association of Bush Regenerators) website at http://www.zip.com.au/~aabr there is a lot of very useful information, particularly for the Sydney region. Their focus is expanding and is only limited by the time volunteers have available to put information together that can then go on the website. AABR is a volunteer organisation. you'll find a link for a discussion list there and if you want to ask questions such as this of very expereinced regenerators, then it is a great medium for doin so . Goodl uck with your adventures Susannah "David Hare-Scott" wrote in message . .. I have just read "Bringing back the bush" by Joan Bradley, which tells us that to revegetate land with native species we proceed with weed removal only at the pace that natives can take over the cleared space. Quite obviously leaving large areas cleared is just a waste as most likely you will just get your weeds back again. According to Bradley one does a limited area at a time and then wait for the local species to re-seed or otherwise propagate naturally. During the time that the natives and weeds are competing for the area you tip the balance in favour of the natives by removing the weeds until the natives can take over without help. Then you move on to the next area, so you incrementally push back the weeds from the most weed-free areas towards the most weed affected. Has anybody here actually done this? What were your experiences? How far was it from the revegetated area to natural bush? How long did it take per clearing cycle? What happens where the landscape has been non-natural (cleared for pasture) for 150 years? If all the land within kilometers is the same where will your natives propagate from? My impression is that the Bradley method as it is written is just not going to work in this situation and that I will need to judiciously introduce the replacment species otherwise the nearest replacement is going to always be weeds. I would really like some war stories drawn from experience here not just theory. David |
#5
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Bradley method bush regeneration
"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
. .. SNIP What happens where the landscape has been non-natural (cleared for pasture) for 150 years? If all the land within kilometers is the same where will your natives propagate from? My impression is that the Bradley method as it is written is just not going to work in this situation and that I will need to judiciously introduce the replacment species otherwise the nearest replacement is going to always be weeds. We touched on this Bush regeneration subject when doing my apprenticeship. The Bradley method was mentioned, and the teacher pointed out the same as you have (above). Of course there is very little chance that native seeds will naturally come up. They may do, and you'd be suprised how and where seeds come from. Ok, birds play a big part. This is where Hydraseeding (sp?) now comes in. Correct preparation, including spraying of weeds and removal of non-native, non-wanted vegetation is a must. The Hydraseed is a mix of native seed, even more defined, native to your area. Mixed with wood fibre for body, it is shot out of a large bore hose with a "spray" of water to spread the seed. After that just wait for germination. The area usually rejuvenates quite quickly and thick. Though recent drought would slow things down. Of course alternatives would be planting from tubestock but the hydraseed covers big areas fast, and you may have seen it used during construction of new highways. The main priority after the initial weeding, then planting, is the follow up care, mostly of weeding. This is with all regen work. We have used something similar to the bradley method at work, and it's been quite effective. However we did bring in the hydraseeders. So far, after approximately 18months, we have had to weed the area twice since the seed went down, and now that is all. The natives have germinated and getting well advanced, especially the acacias, keeping the weeds down. Susannah mentioned the burning of Kikuyu, and it brought up acacia seeds. That could probably happen. Burning the area first will also kill a lot of weed seeds. The great thing is it will not really affect any native seeds there. We tried it with another area as we had no time to spray it before the Hydraseeders come in. The area was Settaria grass(sp??) in a paddock for probably the past 30yrs. It had been cleared, soil imported then mulched, sat for about 2yrs, then mulched again. Full of weeds of all sorts, including the settaria grass. An absolute mess. We set fire to the area (probably 300m x 100m), the thick mulched burned well, creating enough heat to kill the weed seeds. Again, about 18months later, and only 1 follow up weed, and that was weeds on the edge where the fire had not quite got. Not sure if the fire had anything to do with it, but in this batch there seemed to be a lot more Eucalypts in this batch. Perhaps the seed mix was different, who knows. But the burn helped with lack of weeds. I always remember and use the example of the stubborness of some weeds. Flickweed seeds can remain dormant, yet viable for up to 10yrs after being released. Ok, probably strayed a little there, but hope it helps. -- Remove "not" from start of email address to reply I would really like some war stories drawn from experience here not just theory. David |
#6
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Bradley method bush regeneration
"susannah" wrote in message ... I'm a bush regenerator David, and have worked on a lot of different sites. Susannah Many thanks for some good information. David |
#7
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Bradley method bush regeneration
In article , Andrew G wrote:
"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message . .. [snip sound advice] Burning the area first will also kill a lot of weed seeds. The great thing is it will not really affect any native seeds there. Unless of coure you are in a fire sensitive area like a former rainforest. The approach there is to encourage seed spreading birds to come in. If you don't have any large trees, the provision of artificial perches might help. Of course the birds bring weeds in too which have to be dealt with, potentially for quite a long time (until they're shaded out). -- Replace abuse with kd21 in email address to assure valid reply address. |
#8
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Bradley method bush regeneration
"Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish" wrote in message ... The approach there is to encourage seed spreading birds to come in. If you don't have any large trees, the provision of artificial perches might help. Of course the birds bring weeds in too which have to be dealt with, potentially for quite a long time (until they're shaded out). -- Given my privet forests this seems very likely I reckon there are generations of local birds who have grown fat feasting on privet berries, removing the privet could be an ecological disaster for them! (Well almost). David |
#9
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Bradley method bush regeneration
"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message u... Given my privet forests this seems very likely I reckon there are generations of local birds who have grown fat feasting on privet berries, removing the privet could be an ecological disaster for them! (Well almost). David Don't forget that Privet seed is only viable for two years roughly, so shading it out is often the best practice. the seed is also killed by fire. There are a few papers around about the impact of winter seeding weeds and how they have altered teh natural partial migration of certain species (Sydney based research). Very interesting reading, mostly focusses on Currwongs, though it would apply to some other species as well. Currawongs in the Sydney area used to be paritally migratory, ie heading west over the Blue mountains at the time of year Privet just so happens to seed, not returning until after the main rush of Spring bird breeding had ocurred. It was noticed that Currawongs were hanging around the Sydney area, and that due to this they were around when small birds were breeding, and when the chicks were at their most vulnerable, in the nest. The decline of small birds in Sydney has been directly attributed to Currawongs (by several ecologists) remaining in the Sydney basin over winter/Spring. Many introduced natives such as grevilleas encourage the agressive, and often more attractive, hoenyeaters, and push out the smaller, boring brown birds... By you removing the privet, or some of it in mosaic pattern, you may be altering the short term species composition of your birds, but in the long term it might be returning it to something more like a balanced ecosystem. Please note i am not saying you will return it to original condition, as I don't think that is feasible or realistic. Susannah |
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