Native Trees – a Special View and Celebration

Prime estate and character:  Australian eucalypts (C. Mobbs).

There are many ways of celebrating our special trees. Here is Chris’ way which he calls Nature’s Grand Designs; view it at https://youtu.be/bN9bfbKEc08   and get inspired!

Dear Friends of Mount Majura

National Tree Day on 2 August 2020   https://planetark.org/campaigns/treeday.cfm is a great initiative to get the community out and taking action to plant native trees and shrubs across Australia.

I have been focussing on another aspect of trees i.e. the dead ones!!

The small entrance of the tree hollow in this dead Scribbly gum selects its inhabitants (W. Pix).

I want to highlight the beauty and value of our Australian trees, notably eucalypts, when they die, or when branches fall on the ground.  Many eucalypts will live for several hundreds of years during which they will develop hollow limbs.  These hollows are important nesting or roosting sites for many of our fauna – 17% of bird species*, 42% of mammals and 28% of reptiles (Gibbons and Lindenmayer 1997) source Tree Hollows. Even after dying they can remain standing for many decades, still providing valuable habitat. And when these branches fall on the ground they provide shelter for other reptiles, marsupial mice, native rats, frogs and insects.  Without dead trees and branches, our forests and woodlands would have less fauna.

As well as providing essential habitat for fauna, the dead wood can form many beautiful shapes and textures – against a backdrop of mist or clouds, the branches stripped of their leaves, stand still and provide a sense of serenity.

Over the past few months, I have been photographing dead trees, stumps, logs and various pieces of fallen timber in the suburb of Hackett, and on Mt Majura and Mt Ainslie Reserves. I have been amazed by the patterns made by wood borers, the twisted shapes of branches, or the many shades of grey. If you use your imagination, you can sometimes see the shapes of animals.

I have used these images to create a 3 minute video on YouTube called Nature’s Grand Designs; view it at https://youtu.be/bN9bfbKEc08  

I thought FOMM would be interested in viewing this video

Regards
Chris Mobbs
Convenor Bragg St Park Volunteers Group, Hackett

*See also Alice McGlashan “High Density Living“, a practical approach to tree hollows on FoMM’s Facebook.

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