Every Friday a group of tree lovers meets at a nursery beside Lake Eacham and makes magic happen in the world of forest restoration. Washing pots, planting seeds, pruning seedlings – they lay the groundwork for the green corridors that are steadily growing bigger and wider on the banks of creeks and rivers in the Atherton Tablelands region.

Volunteers from Trees for Evelyn and Atherton Tablelands, or TREAT, have planted thousands of trees this year – at sites including Lake Eacham, Butchers Creek, Millaa Millaa and Topaz. It’s improving  vegetation along waterways, stabilising creek and river banks and keeping topsoil on the land and, ultimately, out of the Great Barrier Reef.

TREAT project officer Irene Gorman says the latest project is on private property with a creek that connects to the Russell River.

“We’ve planted trees in a creek gully where there is already a lovely patch of biodiverse remnant riparian forest bordering a national park,’’ she says.

“It’s a 1.4km stretch of creek and the project includes fencing on both sides to keep out cattle and allow revegetation to happen on the other side as well.

“The vegetation that’s already in the gully has a biodiversity status ‘of concern’ and it includes what’s classified as ‘reef regrowth watercourse vegetation’. It’s quite the wildlife corridor with cassowaries and a range of frogs and bats including spectacled flying foxes and waterfall frogs, both of them endangered species.”

TREAT has been growing and planting native rainforest trees for 40 years now. The group started by planting over 2700 trees, grown by members at their homes. With more than 400 members now, they grow about 45,000 trees a year for revegetation projects in collaboration with Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service’s Lake Eacham Nursery staff.

Irene says one secret to their longevity and success is the close relationship with Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. Another is planting in the rain: “We may come in looking like drowned rats but the wet season gives the trees a good start in establishing themselves’’.

A mix of local trees are used in the revegetation projects, with ‘pioneer’ species a staple because they grow quickly and establish habitat for seed spreading. They also protect the smaller riparian remnant plants from weather, and shade out weeds. As the older remnants establish, the pioneer trees, which have a shorter lifespan, diminish.

“They create a bit of a nursery for the remnant riparian vegetation,” Irene says. “They’re really good at speeding things along in the regeneration of riparian habitats.”

The Russell River tree-planting project is proudly funded through the Queensland Government’s Community Sustainability Action Grants program.