SAVED: Illawarra Landcare project officer, seed collector and seed bank officer Richard Scarborough describes the types of plants to be collected to Berry Landcare members and Fulton Hogan staff.

UNDERSTORY plants on a section of land where work will soon start on the Foxground to Berry Bypass have been saved.

Contractors Fulton Hogan will start clearing work in the Broughton area, just north of Berry, shortly.

Berry Landcare members and  Fulton Hogan staff combined resources to remove a number of plants from a section of revegetated bushland on Phil Bragg and Carolyn Ridge’s Glenvale property, which will be cleared to make way for the highway construction.

The bushland, adjacent to the existing highway, is home to a wide variety of plants and a “treasure trove” for the collectors.

Illawarra Landcare project officer Richard Scarborough said a number of different plants had been removed from the area.

“They were plants that would have otherwise been trampled and destroyed when the bulldozers came through,” he said.

“These plants were remnants of rainforest areas and by removing them we can save them and they will be used in other Berry Landcare projects.”

The plants include varieties of orchids, herbaceous ground covers, different varieties of grasses, ferns, climbers and vines and trees and shrubs, including rainforest seedlings.

The plants were placed into special seed propagating trays and will be cared for by students at Berry Public School as part of its plant propagation program and at a local nursery.

Once established they will be used in other projects in the area.

Berry Landcare chairman Will Armitage said the combined collection work, which resulted in 60 pots and 80 trays of small trees, ferns, orchids and ground covers retrieved, was a unique approach.

“It allows us to recover some of these species from the area before it is destroyed,” he said.

“It’s the first time this sort of work, saving plants from the understory, has been done in the Berry area.”

Landcare volunteer Lyn Clark, who also oversees the Berry school plant propagation program, said it allows the plants to survive and be used in regeneration programs.

It is a real chance for the kids to be involved in doing something for their community,” she said.

“They use seeds and plants collected locally, propagate and care for them and they will then be planted back out into the community somewhere.”

A number of Fulton Hogan staff gave up their time to help with the plant collection.

Project environmental manager Sam Leigh said the company was keen to help wherever it could.

“We understand how important it is to recover these plants and it is great to be able to work with the local Landcare group to achieve their goals,” he said.