Tree planting will help protect possums

Frogsong Farm in Perup has planted 10,000 new trees, as the owners work towards the goal of creating a pathway for native wildlife across the farm.

Owners Tracey Robins and Neil Taylor received grant money from the Federal Government’s threatened fauna recovery program to purchase the trees and recruited volunteers to help them plant the trees on Thursday and Saturday.

Some of the volunteers included Ni-Van orchard workers from Berry Sweet Farm in Pemberton.

Ms Robins said the goal was to connect an isolated patch of bush on one side of the property, to the State forest on the other side of the property, to allow endangered species such as the western ringtail possum to travel safely in the canopy tops, rather than on the ground, where they are vulnerable to introduced and native predators.

Volunteer Lee Fontanini said re-vegetating areas near rivers and streams — known as riparian zones — was important for conservation. “Planting in riparian zones is particularly important for a lot of the animals that live there, because so many of the riparian zones are being lost to damming in the area,” she said.

“It’s important, not only for the animals, but for the water quality, as it stops erosion.”

This batch of 10,000 trees will form part of the 38,000 required to complete the project and it will take up to a decade for the trees to grow to maturity.