About This Website | Trees For Climate

Can trees help to repair our broken climate?

Our planet is experiencing the disastrous results of the climate crisis.

We must reduce carbon emissions. We must stop burning fossil fuels. We must replace them with renewable energy sources.

We must protect the natural ecosystems that remain: forests, swamps, coral reefs, mangroves……we can’t afford to lose any more of these.

But there is more to do: growing forests - rural and urban - is a vital, affordable, accessible natural climate solution that must be undertaken on a massive scale.

Every tree counts.

And we can’t afford to leave this job to the “experts”, the entire population of the world needs to mobilise to get this job done.

That’s what this website is about: thinking globally and acting locally. We want to show everyone in the Bungendore district that they can play a part in climate repair, and create a model for local action that other communities can learn from.

Like most other Landcare groups across Australia, Bungendore Landcare members have been re-vegetating large areas of public and private land for more than 3 decades. They have the skills and experience and they know how to get it done with minimum costs and maximum success, whatever the climatic conditions. They want to share that knowledge locally.

Understandably, many people are now experiencing climate change anxiety and even climate change grief, but “The best Antidote to Anxiety is Action!"

If you are fortunate enough to have a substantial block of land, you can plant trees, or direct-sow them, or fence off existing vegetation (from grazing or cultivation) so that natural re-generation can take place. Don’t overlook the advantages that extra tree cover will provide for you and your stock or crops.
On most agricultural sites that have been grazed or cultivated for many years, there are seeds of native plants persisting in the soil and they will germinate when given the chance.
Consider planting suckering trees such as some acacias and casuarinas, or elms and silver poplars on moister sites : that way you will grow a forest from one tree, with no effort on your part! Forests are what we need. Thinning the suckers will provide poles, firewood, garden stakes and many other useful objects.
If you have a garden: consider planting more trees, or large shrubs and small shrubs if trees are not suitable for your urban block; not just for carbon capture, but to provide shade, shelter from wind, wildlife habitat, food and beauty.
If you have a balcony: use the space for growing seedlings/cuttings for others to plant.
If you don’t have a balcony: collect seeds and cuttings for others who do have space to do plant propagation.
Or join Bungendore Community Garden, and do your gardening/propagation there.
Talk to your local Council (QPRC) about getting permission for re-vegetation projects on public land.
Talk to local businesses which have bare ground that needs to be vegetated. The industrial zone might be a good place to start!

Simple paths to Carbon Capture which you can practise at home, at little cost, to make a difference.

Natural regeneration at Millpost, near Bungendore, which has occurred with only a slight change in grazing management.

Donald “Peter” McPherson (15/5/1926 - 19/4/2019)

Peter first arrived in Bungendore in 1997 and bought an empty block in Osborne Street, East Bungendore, re-locating a house from Wagga which became his home for 22 years. He had recently lost his wife.
He joined Bungendore Landcare in 2009, at about the time when the Bungendore Community Garden was established in Turallo Terrace. He liked to grow fruit but he wasn’t really a notable gardener; however he had been an engineer and surveyor and had excellent building and handyman skills which were most useful for setting up a couple of sheds to house tools, mulch and so forth.
Peter always turned up to our working bees; he was a dedicated Landcarer. He was a very quiet man and we didn’t get to know much about his personal life.
Penny Evans, who looked after him in his final years, did get to know him well. She says Peter was someone who cared deeply for the environment, ate a very healthy diet, was a great reader, and was devoted to his dog Sammy who he loved to take for long walks.

When he left a large sum of money to Bungendore Landcare in his will, our members had to decide how to best use the bequest in order to respect Peter's Earth-Caring values and aspirations. We decided we’d use the money to encourage local broad-scale re-vegetation, by making it as easy as possible for everyone to be involved in simple, direct, hands-on climate change action. We thought we could create a one-stop-shop which would put as much helpful information in
one place as possible. This website is dedicated to the memory of Peter McPherson, who led a quiet life in a back-street of Bungendore but whose generous legacy has made a huge impact on the town, through bequests to several important community groups including Bungendore Landcare.