Funded by the NSW Government and supported by South East Local Land Services, a small, farmer-led group called Southern Tablelands Agricultural Restoration (STAR) has co-designed a replanting approach called Open Woodland Restoration. Plantings feature widely spaced eucalyptus trees to form the main canopy, and the clumps of trees and shrubs are broken up by grassy open areas. This “clumpy and open” structure provides flexibility to work around existing paddock features while maintaining productive pasture.
Reforestation using the Open Woodland Restoration approach can be used by landholders to capture and store carbon and generate saleable credits under the Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) Scheme Environmental Plantings Method. Open Woodland Restoration projects are planned to establish connected landscape corridors across the Southern Tablelands – improving biodiversity and increasing habitat in highly cleared landscapes and providing on-farm productivity benefits and extra income.
