General News
30 May, 2025
BARRY'S CORNER: Trees
Trees come in all shapes, sizes and locations. If any of us were dropped in a new location anywhere in the country, it might well be obvious where we have ended up.
Trees are a good indicator of the district where we happen to have landed.
If we popped into Hamilton, the trees are rounded at the base and not overly tall.
But get popped into Ouyen, it would suggest we are in the Mallee because the trees are shorter in height with skinny and tough branches.
The type of tree reflects the climate, the soil types and the timing of the rainfall.
This has evolved over many thousands of decades and has taken into account the ever accepting of these changing conditions.
All trees take changes in small increments as the conditions allow, and can take exception to being fast-tracked, where they often fail and die off.
We as a community do not think in such long terms, not that a tree thinks at all, but our brains do not allow us to be strategic and work towards a solution for the future.
Trees have made the community a wealth of usefulness and provide heat, structures, shade and industry.
Without the amazing diversity of the trees, there would not be such creativity in the society.
A new plantation in the centre of Australia, unless supported by a watering system, would struggle to survive, while attempting a planting in the Antarctic would be futile because it is too cold.
There are hundreds of life-giving trees recorded in Australia, and it is not hard to match your district with a species that will grow with strength and vigour.
The failure of new plantations can be much higher by using tree seed from another region.
By using local species, they should do better and provide much-needed habitat for the biodiversity that has evolved.
Keep an eye out for any trees of significance because they can be noticed and protected.
It can be any species of tree that stands out from its neighbours, ie tall branches in unusual formations or just growing in a new, unexpected fashion.
We should be planting a whole lot more trees everywhere we can, but by taking in a few of the criteria of which tree does best in your district will make the new tree a happy little number.