News

May 23rd, 2010,

Hundreds of Brisbane residents gathered at Toowong’s Anzac Park, to assist Cr Newman plant the 1 millionth tree of the four-year 2 Million Trees project.

Water and Carbon Group chief executive Jim Hunter, whose Brisbane-based company is rolling out the tree-planting for the Brisbane City Council, said 2 Million Trees is the largest urban reforestation project in Australia’s history and is a credit to Lord Mayor Campbell Newman and his commitment to a sustainable city.

“The mayor’s tree really is one in a million – and there’s a million more to come,” Mr Hunter said.

Watch Brisbane City Council Lord Mayor Campbell Newman plant the 1 millionth tree.

“This program not only provides green buffers at a time Brisbane is under pressure from population growth but assures these new forests are preserved. In effect, the city is swapping greenhouse gas for trees, bare ground for wildlife habitats.

“Getting the people of Brisbane involved is crucial, and we’ve had great work done on school and community planting days. Organised communities such as habitat groups have also been of great value by contributing in the site designs.”

The planting of 2 million native trees across the city means that as well as seeing degraded former farms and landfills revitalised, Brisbane residents can look forward to better long-term water and air quality, and healthier waterways, Mr Hunter said.

Sites are also chosen to form new vegetation corridors – the essential “animal highways” for threatened species such as koalas.

Mr Hunter said regenerating the 80 sites so far had required a meticulous balance of modern science and logistics with botanical data.

To rebuild ecosystems with site-specific vegetation, Water and Carbon Group uses the Queensland Herbarium’s Regional Ecosystem (RE) mapping data that aims to recreate the native vegetation present before European settlement.  Seedlings are grown specifically for each site by local nurseries for three to four months before planting.

Mr Hunter said more than 100 species have been used to date, including common varieties such as wattle, eucalypt, corymbia, melaleuca, and casuarina trees.  Density depends on whether species will comprise the upper, middle or lower part of the canopy.

“Every site is mapped down to the last tree to ensure we can deliver the basic building blocks to bring the native forests back to life as near as possible to how nature planned them,” he said.