Nearly 120 volunteers helped plant more than 2500 trees in the Capertee Valley earlier in the month as part of the Regent Honeyeater Recovery Program.
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Since 1994, over 110,000 trees have been planted in the valley in the hope that when grown, the trees will provide nectar, habitat and nesting sites for the endangered bird.
Planting’s take place twice a year on private property in May and August with volunteers coming from the local shires and across New South Wales.
It’s a popular cause with people from all walks of life and age groups turning up each year to spend a day in the spectacular valley and getting down and dirty.
“They come looking for us, they might be a bit interested in trees, they’ve heard of us in the valley. Contact seeps through to me and I sort out the land and the suitability of the land for certain species,” volunteer Dick Turner said.
“We plant 500 trees per hectare. The three prime nectar-producing trees are Mugga Ironbark, Yellow Box and White Box,” he said.
The 70 adult volunteers who turned up at Bruce and Donna Upton’s property to help plant 2500 trees by the end of the day received a little bit of help from Taronga Zoo in Sydney.
The Zoo bought 49 young volunteers down to the area by bus and in a matter of hours more than 1600 trees had been planted by the Taronga Zoo volunteers.
They worked so quickly that by the time the team got back on the bus at 3pm, the remaining volunteers only had to plant another three rows of trees and finish the watering.
The Regent Honeyeater Recovery Program is funded by the Hawkesbury-Nepean Catchment Management Authority and these days there is a waiting list of landowners in the area.
The project itself is headed by the Land Rovers’ Owners Club who have been the backbone of the whole operation since 1994. The LROC collect the plants from the nursery, take them to the site and co-ordinate laying out the plants, stakes and guards.
Regent Honey Eaters have become so rare that there are less than 1200 of them in the wild due to land clearing and habitat destruction.