Facilitator Andrew Ward, with farmers Chris Komor and James Campbell.
In a growing movement that combats the effects of a declining ecosystem pivotal for productive and efficient farming, the Open Woodland Restoration information session on February 26 in Goulburn saw 30 farmers make the first steps towards understanding how restoring woodlands to a balanced state of tree and grass density can benefit both themselves and their future in the industry.
More than 60 other farmers participated through an online video platform.
Regen Farmers Mutual (a farmer cooperative whose priority is in creating profitable regenerative agriculture) CEO, Andrew Ward, facilitated the event.
“When farmers came to this part of the world, the science was very complex to understand the interactions between soils, grasses and rainfall,” he said.
“Unfortunately, they were looking for simple, instead of accurate, answers.
“The simple answer was that trees and grass compete for every 100 mils of rainfall, and therefore, what you have is decreasing grass productivity with increasing numbers of trees, and that paradigm led us to clearing the land for 200 years.
“It’s only been through fantastic research science that has shown us the relationship between economic outcomes and tree proximity, for example, that starts to teach us that there is a sweet spot that occurs.”
In a landscape that has been predominantly cleared, Andrew raises the question, how does one replicate that sweet spot?
“You need to let trees, shrubs and grasses establish an open and clumpy style of ecosystem where there’s multiple stories, where there is enough space for grasslands, where there is enough shade for different types of grasses, where there’s enough symbiosis between them,” he said.
The Open Woodland Restoration Project was designed by Dr Geoff Kay, whose farm (Waminda) in Jeir became the first to test the thesis.
“It looks like tram tracks,” said Andrew.
The design (two close rows of trees each two metres apart, followed by a large 20 metre gap, followed by two close rows of trees each two metres apart and another 20-metre gap ongoing), creates carbon credits, which also creates a biodiverse income for farmers.
“We are dealing with a long-term investment in productivity, carbon and biodiversity,” said Andrew.
“This isn’t a get rich quick scheme.
“This is a design that will take trees five to seven years in this environment to get to the point where they’re contributing carbon.”
Currently, the design will take trees within the Southern Tablelands’ environment five to seven years to develop to the point of contributing carbon.
Most of the initial costs lie in fencing, upfront design and direct seeding or tube stock.
“Once you get that carbon, it takes a while to pay off those initial costs, but over the course of the 25-year project, it has an increased return in terms of productivity and a really good internal rate of return overall on 25 years,” said Andrew.
A design for “innovators”, Andrew said it would take some significant work to see the project carried out in the least productive areas of a farm until the funding issue can be overcome.
For now, he said it is a job for pioneers to undertake to get the word out for a larger audience.
“We will start to see [them] adopting this and it will start to be a genuine intervention that makes sense for landholders to do at scale, and that helps us achieve biodiversity outcomes, restoration of box gum grassy woodlands and even meeting national and farm level carbon credit requirements,” he said.
Dr Geoff Kay, who had recently undergone a hip replacement, attended the meeting from a Zoom link.
“I’m an ecologist, so I’ve spent a long time working in woodlands in particular, particularly around restoring biodiversity back to woodlands,” said Dr Kay.
“I approach the custodianship of this land as an opportunity to practice some of the intentions of restoring biodiversity but also trying to make it feasible and cost effective along the way.”
Dr Kay’s qualifications are many, having completed a PhD in implementing government policy to improve uptake initiatives (such as the current carbon initiative) where landholders become stewards of land and fund the stewardship over termed agreements.
It is through this research that he said he began to explore the different biodiverse environments around New South Wales (NSW).
“I put in stark contrast the challenge that we have in southeastern NSW where we’ve got over-cleared landscapes and a really urgent need for active restoration,” he said.
“What we are talking about today is really limited to one type of vegetation type, and this works in Box Gum Grassy Woodlands (BBGM) because they are naturally quite open ecosystems and are also really endangered.
“It is imperative that we don’t sit on our hands and wait too long.
“We’ve got to get these woodlands back in the landscape [because] it’s a really critical part of our biodiversity and our whole livelihood.
“That’s certainly one of the driving features of why I was so eager to embark on this.”
Plantation began in 2010 when Dr Kay implemented a rudimentary woodland design to his 50-hectare farm.
“It’s only small,” he said.
“I appreciate many people will have larger blocks and might have the same situation that I do, where I’ve done everything except for the seeding myself, which I managed to get some help from a local Landcare group.”
The biggest challenge, he said, was trying to control the existing vegetation to create an opportunity for planting.
Transforming this initial idea to a design in 2022 wasn’t easy, with several issues arising from La Nina (severe wet weather conditions).
“We started this in 2022, and there was not much guidance at all around various designs, and I became increasingly concerned about arboretum style plantings that don’t match the ecology and creates threats and problems for landholders,” he said.
“I had a few very extensive set of conversations with the Clean Energy regulator around this particular design and we were robustly thrashed out by the principals of the act and the legislation, and also what I was planning to do on the ground.
“We came to some arrangement after some time… there was a lot of work in stage one, but it’s all pretty achievable.”
A “pretty doable” stage for individuals, Dr Kay said farmers shouldn’t see it as a hurdle, with the hardest part being the site prep required by slashing and spraying the area.
His approach to creating the lines were not linear, which was a purposeful attempt in creating a more natural looking environment.
“I fully accept that some parts of the property will not grow trees and same densities that other parts will, so we’ll end up with a scattered and nice approach in the end,” he said.
“You could create more innovative designs and squiggles but [should] remember that the Clean Energy regulator has guidance around ensuring that your methods are consistent with every paddocks.
“This was the simplest way to achieve that and means a lot easier management down the track, once those trees are growing.”
Sowing 12 different species in a cost-effective approach, Dr Kay said he used a mix of land specific species that targeted the ecological integrity of the approach.
“We are actively trying to restore a critically endangered ecosystem in a species mix,” he said.
“It’s really dominated my story at this stage, but I see my custodianship of this land as a successional thing and I’m fortunate to still be in my mid-40s, so I’ve got time ahead of me to continue to push this whole journey forward, which will be nice, but this is definitely a strong starting point.”
James Campbell, a farmer and ex-banker whose close relationship with Andrew Ward helped him join the Regen Farmers Mutual Members Council in 2021 (later becoming chair of the organisation), said: “Our strategy is to deploy the land of assets to their highest and best use to achieve a sustainable grazing operation supported by income streams or alternative income streams from natural capital assets.”
Working with an UK based impact fund during the day, James said he was able to leverage this knowledge to find the right people to assess the design and project from a National Capital perspective.
It was through his own studies with Andrew that led them to Dr Kay’s work in 2023.
“We don’t know, as a group or as a community, what’s around the corner,” he said.
“But we are scoping this out.
“What we are doing here is replacing that threatened ecological community… it stands up as a good thing to do, but it’s also a financial decision that makes sense.”
According to James, their goal is always on looking at potential project gains for farmers.
“We are always thinking about the long term,” he said.
James’ farm, ‘Top Yarraman’ in Bigga, is a 1700-hectare merino sheep farm. He has allocated 78 hectares into the restoration project, using $1000 and $10,000 grants.
“When we looked at the project itself, the key component and key variable in this is the yield,” he said.
“Know your yield and ensure that you get the support to get on the way to commencing some assumptions.
“To me, that’s the starting point.”
Stating an urgency with respect to safeguarding the price of yields, he said it was important that any space utilised for the project could be used for grazing.
“I pulled back the carrying capacity by 60 percent, and gave myself a far lower number of animals that I could graze on there to see what actually happened,” he said.
“It was probably too conservative, but it still made the outcome far more compelling than running my 350 wethers on 78 hectares.
“On a gross margin basis, on a like versus like, I was coming in at $342 a hectare on the wethers and over $1200 a hectare on the carbon over a 25-year period.
“I’m well over 100 to 120 percent ahead on a project basis.
This, he said, was aided by the fact that he already owned the land he had established the project on.
To further simplify the statistics, James concluded that it was based on gross margin versus gross margin based on confidence around drivers, such as carbon, yield and price.
“I think to think in two years’ time, this will be a very different looking paddock and then within five to seven, we will be stocking it again, hopefully at higher than 40 percent.
“We are on the road and we’re looking forward to seeing how it goes.”
Chris Komor from ‘Willow Bend’ in Cowra, also runs a merino sheep farm across 3000 hectares.
He has implemented the restoration project to 30 hectares, using the same $1000 and $10,000 grants that James used.
A farmer and former attorney, Chris used his own expertise in law to assist with the legal documents required for the project.
“This project has challenged us, and my role has been to help [Andrew] and his team come up with the documents,” he said.
“We’ve had lots of jousting, in a serious way, in zoom meetings with a team of lawyers to come up with the templates for future, much larger projects.”
One particular issue that Chris says they have encountered is the roles and responsibilities of the farmer themselves.
“Whose responsibility is it?” He said.
“If I put wheat into a paddock and things go wrong, that’s my problem. [But] if an earthquake comes, is it my problem?
“We worked on these agreements to say, ‘what’s the farmer’s responsibility and what was Regen’s responsibility’.”
One year ago, Andrew said they ran a similar event where only 15 people attended. Doubling this number in physical appearances alone, he said they are well on their way to sharing the regenerative design for more farmers across the Southern Tablelands.
Moving forward, they will be hosing several sessions with more information about the project, and how pioneers and innovators might participate themselves.
On March 26, an online codesign session will look at giving a baseline understanding of the farm-level resources within the region.
An interactive “give and get” style meeting, participants will learn about what BGGW habitats they have on their properties, will understand what areas are suitable, will explore their Biodiversity Condition Score (and how it compares locally), potential carbon sequestration and where the highest-yielding areas sit.
Link to tickets: https://events.humanitix.com/what-do-we-have-with-open-woodland-restoration
This online codesign session is 1.5 hours on the 26th of March from 12:30 – 2:00pm.
Andrew says the session will also help them understand what needs to be added so that the environmental benefits are easier to understand through feedback.
A second codesign session titled “What is it Worth” will take place on April 30, with a third titled “How Do We Tell Our Story” on May 28.
On the 25th of May, participants will be given the opportunity to attend a field trip to Dr Kays farm, ‘Waminda’, to see the implementation of a matured Open Woodland Restoration project.
Designed to tackle the environmental, financial and productive call to actions, more information will be available in the coming weeks.
To stay up to date on everything concerning this innovative approach to endangered ecological habitats, visit their website at regenfarmersmutual.com.au.
Map Your Farm
As part of the Open Woodland Restoration project, a free report can be provided of the carbon sequestration potential and current biodiversity condition of your farm. All you need to do is identify the boundaries of your farm in the map below and we can send you the report overnight. The accompanying questions are part of the project, as we aim to understand the motivations and barriers for farmers to adopt this new farming practice.
Want to Map your Farm? Head to https://www.openwoodlandrestoration.com/map-your-farm
Elizabeth Kovacs
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