Ollie – Landcare facilitator

Did you know that planting a tree has at least a fourteen fold return on the money you spent on it, every year? Where we live in Apollo Bay our house was already quite well set up, the landlords had created a nice open (north facing) back yard to maximise sun and our neighbour had a very wild and overgrown garden which provided a myriad of birds and sheltered us from easterly winds. On the south side of our house though there was space for a couple more trees and so we’ve put in a coastal Messmate Stringybark (Eucalyptus obliqua) and a Sweet Bursaria (Bursaria spinosa) and we’ve already started benefiting from them! Trees have an incredibly enormous range of benefits

• They can reduce winter heating costs by up to 25% by reducing wind
• They stabilise temperatures as they are full of water, less frosts in winter and less extreme heat in summer. The cooling impact of a single healthy tree from evaporation and absorbing sunlight is equivalent to ten room-size air conditioners operating 24 hours a day
• They ultimately increase property and lease values (not always a good one haha)
• They reduce stormwater runoff decreasing flooding and improving water quality
• They remove pollution from the air, giving you healthier lungs and fixing carbon, a small step to reducing emissions

• They improve mental health, greenery alone has been shown to achieve this (reducing anxiety and depression) but planting a local native tree will significantly increase happiness as it will attract more insects and hence more wildlife. Introduced trees (those that wouldn’t have grown here naturally) haven’t got fungi, insects or other wildlife here that have evolved with them and so they don’t support as much life plus they have the potential to spread into our national parks as weeds
• They help people drive slower, crazy but true, street trees have been shown to reduce peoples speed
• They help you be active, having more trees has been shown to increase the amount of exercise people get, you’re more likely to go for a walk or a run if there’s beautiful trees around
• They look great, already we’ve loved watching our trees grow and the gum is about to flower for the first time!

I could go on I’m sure, do some research yourself, but the big takeaway is plant a tree. Planting it strategically is important, you don’t want to shade yourself from warm winter sun but have a think where your winter winds come from or plant on the south side of the house. Whether you do it to save money, get more wildlife or beautify your place it’s worth doing!