Uralla farmers, James Smith and Ange Morse, are set to embark on New England’s biggest ever koala habitat restoration project on their Ringwood property, part of an initiative to restore critical koala habitat across 10,000 hectares of privately-owned land.
This Friday, May 16, the first of 130,000 trees and shrubs, comprising twenty-three species, will be planted by participants at a field day on the property. A total of 307 hectares of their 1,600ha grazing property will be planted across autumn 2025 and autumn 2026.
The plantings will grow into diverse native habitat for endangered koalas and other threatened species.
The Koala Friendly Carbon Initiative – a partnership between leading carbon farming service provider, Climate Friendly and the World Wildlife Fund -Australia, is helping private land managers restore diverse forests across previously cleared farmland. Creating koala habitat is seen as key to preventing their extinction along Australia’s east coast.
“Koala Friendly Carbon benefits land managers by providing an additional income stream while creating critical havens for endangered koalas and other species,” said Climate Friendly’s Co-CEO Skye Glenday.
“Climate Friendly is committed to helping land managers build their properties’ resilience to drought and flood, while improving their farm productivity”.
Cattle can graze amongst the trees, once they are 3 to 4 years old.
Koala Friendly Carbon Initiative
Supported by the NSW Government, 240,000 trees and shrubs have already been planted across 261 hectares of previously cleared land on properties located in the northern rivers, a hotspot for koalas. The maturing forests will tackle climate change by sequestering carbon, generating high integrity Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs). The first ACCUs have been issued to Pilot 1 projects and are expected to attract a premium price due to their significant nature co-benefits.
Carbon sequestration for all ten pilot projects, including Ringwood, is forecast to be 582,735 tonnes ~CO2.
Climate Friendly and WWF-Australia aim to scale up the plantings across private properties in NSW and Queensland over the next few years.
To register to attend the historic plantings day at Ringwood please contact Climate Friendly’s Craig Middleton at Craig.Middleton@climatefriendly.com or 0448 771 025.
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