So you’ve decided to increase the overall value of your land by increasing the area of natural forest but you run cattle or sheep or something . You’d like to increase the biodiversity of insects, native plants, mammals, birds and maybe enhance the micro climate plus give yourself and your neighbors a stunning vista to admire. You have this notion that you’d like to leave the land in much better condition than when you first took over the reins.
Habitat fragmentation
Your paddocks may be completely clear of native vegetation or they may have patches of forest within or on the edges. Natural ecosystems may be highly fragmented and separated or form large blocks of forest. Fragmentation is the division of continuous habitat into small disconnected patches that can be differently shaped and isolated from one another by areas of different habitat (Collinge, 1996). The way to improve the persistence of native species is to improve the natural ecological connectivity within the landscapes. This means connecting the dots and expanding the islands. You don’t have to sacrifice your prime grazing areas. You can choose the less fertile areas of ridge lines and unproductive road sides for linear corridors. Rivers are an effective place to rejuvenate a long connected expanse of natural ecosystem as creeks are a hot spot for many native species and often more biologically diverse than other areas.
Fencing priority areas
Fencing your stock out off priority zones is an effective tool to start the process of resurrecting ecosystems to increase biodiversity. Consider fragile areas vulnerable to grazing and hoof impact. It might be simply a boggy area that doesn’t dry out after rain that the hooves turn to mud that exhibits vulnerability. If you have multiple ecosystems such as swamps, open woodland and say some rain forest, then expansion of each and every of one of these will add the most ecological value to your land. This is because each houses different species so improving and expanding these different habitats increases the total overall range of biodiversity and then gradually, hopefully add more.
Economical fencing
For expanding into paddocks from the sidelines rather than linear connectivity and if you have natural forest or forest that grows at the corners of your open paddocks, these corners are a cheap place to start. Economical fencing can be done by changing paddock corners into diagonals. The same as if you need to quickly make a square stock yard into a round yard by placing wood across the corners. This then looks like a diamond. The fence length is relatively short and it forms more of a block. The original two right angle parts of the fence and the new part can be reinforced with mesh to deter feral animals and large native herbivores (such as kangaroos in Australia) until seedlings are too big for them.
Ecosystem size and complexity
There are a minimum number of resources within an area that native fauna require for a population to thrive and reproduce. These resources include housing such (tree branch hollows, logs, rocks, grassy thickets) food, water and protective cover from predators. Home ranges and natural history information for various species are sometimes known but usually the size varies depending on different site variables.
If you look at the big picture and see how your land flows into your neighbors’ land, then coordinating with them with fence plans, fencing and planting may make your efforts more strategic and a lot easier.
Provenance plants are the key
Fences start the work by firstly removing stock from the ground. With no large herbivores and depending on your site, native plants may soon germinate naturally from the seed bank in the soil within your fenced zones. To speed up and supplement natural seed bank germination, you can artificially grow and plant indigenous vegetation.
The one single important factor for success of this whole process is to ONLY choose site-specific native species of plants to artificially plant and grow. These plant species have evolved over thousands of years to the very specific conditions of these sites (soil type and pH, micro climate, nutrient loads, rainfall) and are therefore likely to survive and not shrivel. They are known as provenance plants. If you think of the whole ecosystem that once existed there, everything within had co-evolved together. For instance, some flowers have their own special co-evolved insects that pollinate them. Your goal is to retain as close to original plants as possible to provide and grow the ecosystem’s backbone vegetative structure. This structure will then allow all the intricate ecological components to flourish and flow on from that supportive structure.
It is best to take the native seed stock from your own land if possible, to reproduce in good numbers ready to plant out. Either, use seed to seedling techniques yourself or collect the seeds and hand them to nurseries to grow for you or community groups, non-government agencies and government agencies such as forestry may help you do this. Government grants, philanthropists and carbon offset companies within your own country or outside your country may be available to assist here. Even your schools may gain from involvement with these ecological activities.
Record the change and celebrate
One last thing, for most satisfaction and also to pinpoint what works and what doesn’t in this process, it’s worth the effort to obtain baseline data. Take lots of ‘before’ photographs and try and survey to establish what you already have on the land, like what bird species are there and where. Even some random vegetation plot surveys are good in the natural part you already have. As the native plants spread, the diversity of plant species may increase in that area too. Perhaps new (but original) bird or bat species may fly in and start providing seeds allowing for a complex and robust ecosystem to flourish and add priceless value to your land.
References:
Collinge, S.K. (1996) Ecological consequences of habitat fragmentation: implications for landscape architecture and planning. Landscape and Urban Planning 36:59-77.