Company has stake in forest regrowth
FALLEN Otway timber is being used to create survey boundary pegs and stakes in a scheme that is financing the planting of thousands of new trees.
Land surveying and subdivision adviser, the Lyssna Group, buys the milled stakes from the volunteer Gellibrand Landcare group which is using the money to plant new trees in degraded waterways in the Otways.
The initiative results in about 500 trees planted for every 40-lot stage of a subdivision that Lyssna undertakes.
The Land and Water Resources Otway Catchment (LAWROC) salvages fallen trees that were previously destined for burning piles from Otways farms and mills them into pegs and stakes.
The practice is being supported on Villawood Properties’ new residential developments in Highton and Lara, with those two developments combining to finance about 14,000 new trees.
The collaboration is part of Lyssna’s and Villawood’s approach to raising the sustainability credentials of residential housing projects.
Villawood also donates a block of bushland to the state forest system for every residential lot it sells, with about 520ha donated to date.
LAWROC’s Andrew McLennan said the group was trying to use, rather than burn, the fallen timber, with revenue from it used to rehabilitate the Charleys Creek area near Gellibrand.
“The logs might be three or four tonnes but whatever hits the ground we try to use,” Mr McLennan said.
“We generally use a truck and a tractor, and we take them straight to our little mill, make the surveyor’s pegs and stakes, all sorts things from them. We use the sawdust for vegie gardens and the offcuts will go into the fireplace.”