The solution

The Yeos immediately commenced a program to revegetate and rehabilitate their land, starting with the planting of native trees and bird-attracting shrubs in their house paddock. From there, they have undertaken several other thoughtful strategies to enhance on-farm biodiversity.  With the philosophy of a healthy ecosystem beginning with healthy soil, several strategies have helped to build soil health over time, including growing different forage crops in rotation, interspersed with cattle grazing using a cell grazing system. Landholders have encouraged natural regeneration by excluding livestock from a strip of land where native seedlings were regenerating, helping to provide young replacement trees adjacent to the old growth timber in a bushland remnant. Recognising the contribution of dead and fallen timber, bark, wood chips and leaf litter, they have refrained from ‘cleaning up’ paddocks, leaving alone logs and dead trees to provide breeding sites, shelter and food (for insects). Livestock have been permanently excluded from the farm dam (cattle now watered from troughs). The Yeos capacity to deliver environmental outcomes through native tree and shrub planting was enhanced through their involvement in the local ‘Habitat Restoration for Gunnedah Koalas’ project managed by Tamworth Regional Landcare Association (with funding from the NSW Government’s ‘Saving our Species’ program). An additional 600 native seedlings were planted in corridors across both properties in 2018.