I'd like to link up with any others who want to integrate forestry into an urban context.
A project I'm involved with is the Hustlers Reef Recreation Reserve(HRRR), North Bendigo. Over the last 5 years I've been part of a group of locals which successfully lobbied the council to support our vision of the Reserve dedicated to multi-use passive recreation. During that time, we carried out community working bees to remove woody weeds & plant box-ironbark species in a section of the Reserve.Bendigo's extensive historic mining reserves (crown land) are predominantly neglected & weed infested.
These areas have the potential to involve local community to restore box-ironbark forest. This produces many benefits for the community and the environment, such as aesthetic & biodiversity enhancement, community engagement & well-being, environmental & historical awareness, fire risk reduction (by replacing a thick weedy shrub layer with open forest)...
HRRR could be used as a model to guide the development of other urban forests.
