The Climate Ready trial planting at Mountain Vale near Murrumbateman was completed in April with a workforce of 20 enthusiastic and capable volunteers who dug holes, watered, and put guards on for a total of 552 plants. The layout of this site is provided in this link. Many hands made light work.  You will hear more about this climate ready site and the Kangiara trial site over the coming years as to how the local and admix plants thrive or die in those sites.

Here are some important lessons from the day (thanks Geoff!):

We have the 10 great buckets from Bowning Bookham. Each bucket labeled A or L  and I've cut frames to hold 8 tubes in each bucket. ie 4 acacia plus 4 hop bush. We have enough people coming to have two teams of two on these and one team of two finishing the eucs ahead of them. I'm keen to avoid people having to bend over too much so the bucket system will be better and easier than putting tubes on the ground at each spot. 

I've also got a container that fits on my belt that holds 8 so that's an option as well. 

Another team of 2 or 3 to supervise and load the buckets and place the A or L buckets at the A or L marker posts and one team of two watering in and one or two teams doing guards. 

Correct and consistent planting and quick follow up with watering in will be the priority.  Guards after that.

Gill and I had a trial run with the guards and like you, we found the stakes a bit rough on corners and hard to easily put through holes in guards so I rotated them across my bench sander so hopefully they'll be easier.

Yass Landcare Group organised a wonderful spotlight tour of Mulligan's Flat Nature Reserve on Thursday 1st April. We got to see a number of the re-introduced Bettongs and Bush Stone-curlews, as well as Brushtail Possums, Red-necked Wallabies, Swamp Wallabies, and other creatures. The spiders were delightful too - there were Wolf Spiders, one of which was carrying countless babies on its back - and a Leaf-curling Spider winching up a leaf. Our guide Tim was knowledgeable and enthusiastic, and everyone had a great time.

The YAN Climate Ready trial at Kangiara is in the ground after recent rains. A total of 528 plants have been planted:176 Eucalyptus melliodora, 176 Acacia deanei, and 176 Dodonaea viscosa.

The major trial sites at Kangiara and Murrumbateman are planted out in blocks with two inner circles (view the trial design here). At Kangiara we have 22 blocks with 2 circular plantings of 12 plants (see the layout here). In each block one circle has plants grown from locally sourced seed and the second circle has plants grown from hotter drier and cooler wetter regions known as our admix plant group. The Murrumbateman trial site will be planted in mid April.

Detailed background on the Climate Ready project is available at https://yan.org.au/projects/yan-climate-ready-project

What we love to see after 6 months in the Landcare plant nursery is plants planted in the paddock with a shovel. In this instance they are protected with biodegradable tree guards - a new experience for a YAN planting.