REAFFORESTATION
Develop an understanding of environmental systems and landscape rehabilitation.
The significance of caring for the environment has been receiving more and more attention in recent times as we come to understand the importance of limited resources and the effects of human activities on the environment. The desertification, erosion and general degradation of once fertile lands is prompting us to investigate why and how these processes have occurred. It has also lead to research into how we can reverse and stop further damage to our environment.
Natural forests are among the most stable and productive ecosystems. We need to plant and conserve forests for their conservation value, to help maintain healthy air, soil and water and for their potential to provide food, forage, fuel, timber and even medicines.
It develops an understanding of environmental systems and the rehabilitation of degraded landscapes. You will learn about seed collection, storage and germination, propagation, plant selection, establishment techniques, and controlling pest and disease after planting.
Duration: 100 hours
COURSE STRUCTURE
There are ten lessons are as follows...
1. Approaches To Land Rehabilitation: The Importance of Trees, Understanding Plants, Plant Identification, Land Management Programs, Soil Degradation, Biodiversity, Salinity, Erosion, Soil Compaction and Acidification, Land Rehabilitation.
2. Ecology Of Soils And Plant Health: The Ecosystem, Biomass, Web of Life, Indigenous Species, Creating Habitat for Wildlife through Corridors, Design Considerations, Edge Effects, Soil Characteristics (physical and chemical), Improving Soils, Plant Nutrition, Nutrient Elements, Diagnosing Nutritional Problems, Pests and Diseases.
3. Introduction To Seed Propagation Techniques: Seed Propagation, Germinating Difficult Seeds, Sowing Seeds, Propagation Containers, Tube Seedlings, Production Systems, Sources of Seed and Seed Germination Resources.
4. Propagation And Nursery Stock: Asexual Production, Cutting Types, Stock Plants, Root Cuttings, Hormone Treatment, Nursery Hygiene, Propagation Mixes, Potting Media, Maintaining Plants in Pots, Using a Greenhouse, Irrigation Systems, Propagating Different Species.
5. Dealing With Chemical Problems: Soil Contamination, Symptoms of Chemical Contamination, Soil Rehabilitation, Growing Plants on Contaminated Soil, Building Site Rehabilitation, Chemical Composition of Soils.
6. Physical Plant Effects On Degraded Sites: Pioneer Plants, Site Protection, Designing and Planting a Firebreak, Arranging Plants, Fire Resistant Plants, Storm water, Waterlogging and Drainage.
7. Plant Establishment Programs: What to Plant Where, Climate, Criteria for Plant Selection, Planting and Plant Protection Methods.
8. Hostile Environments: Planning, Rehabilitation Techniques, Mulching, Weed Management and Trees and Shrubs that are Salt Tolerant.
9. Plant Establishment Care: Planting Procedures, Water and Plant Growth, Plant Health, Inspecting a Plant, Inspecting the Immediate Environment, Methods, Prioritising Problems.
10. Rehabilitating Degraded Sites: Environmental Assessments and Audits, Implementing a Land Rehabilitation Management Program and Replanting.
AIMS
On successful completion of the course you should be able to do the following:
- Compare different approaches to land rehabilitation, to determine strengths and weaknesses of alternative options on a site to be rehabilitated.
- Determine techniques to maximise plant development in land rehabilitation situations.
- Explain the different ways of producing seedling trees for land rehabilitation purposes.
- Determine appropriate plant establishment programs.
- Develop procedures to care for plants, during establishment in an hostile environment.
- Manage the rehabilitation of degraded soil.
- Explain the effect of plants on improving a degraded site, both physically and chemically.
WHAT THE COURSE COVERS
Here are just some of the things you will be doing:
-Determine ten different examples of land degradation on sites visited by you.
-Explain different reasons for land requiring rehabilitation, including:
- Salination
- Erosion
- Mining
- Grazing
- Vegetation harvesting
- Pests
- Reduction of biodiversity
- Soil contamination
- Urbanisation.
-Compare the effectiveness of different policy approaches to land rehabilitation by different agencies and organisation, including:
- Different levels of government
- Mining companies
- Developers
- Conservation groups (i.e. tree planting bodies, landcare groups).
-Develop a risk analysis for a specified site to be rehabilitated, by determining a variety of plant health problems which may impact on the success of plant establishment.
-Analyse the failure of plants to grow successfully on a visited land rehabilitation site.
-Develop a procedure to enhance the success rate of land rehabilitation plantings on a degraded site you visit.
-Describe the use of mulches, to maximise plant condition in a specified land rehabilitation tree planting project.
-Explain different processes of establishing seedlings on land rehabilitation sites, including:
- tubestock nursery production
- direct seeding
- pre-germinated bare rooted seedlings.
-Determine factors which affect the viability of establishing five different species of plant seedlings, from five different plant families; on a specific degraded site.
-Compare the benefits of acquiring plants for a project by buying tubestock, with propagating and growing on, or close to, the planting site, with reference to:
- costs
- plant quality
- local suitability
- management.
-Prepare production schedules for a plant species, using different propagation techniques, summarising all important tasks from collection of seed to planting out of the tubestock.
-Calculate the cost of production for a tubestock plant, according to the production schedule developed by you.
-Estimate the differences in per plant establishment costs, for tubestock, compared with direct seeding methods, for planting on a degraded site.
-Describe three different methods of planting trees for rehabilitation purposes.
-Describe different plant establishment techniques, including:
- wind protection
- frost protection
- pest control
- water management
- weed management.
-Describe an appropriate method for preparing soil for planting, at a proposed land rehabilitation site in your locality.
-Evaluate plant establishment techniques used by two different land rehabilitation programs inspected by you at least twelve months after planting was carried out.
-Determine the needs of plants after planting, on two different proposed land rehabilitation sites.
-Describe different, efficient ways, of catering to the needs of large numbers of plants after planting.
-Collect pressed specimens or photographs of twenty trees for a herbarium of suitable trees for rehabilitation, and including information on the culture and care of each tree.
-Describe different types of soil degradation, detected in your locality.
-Determine the risk factors involved in soil degradation, relevant to your locality.
-Compare two different alternative methods of treating each of three different soil degradation problems identified and inspected by you.
-Develop an assessment form to use for evaluating the sensitivity of a site to land degradation.
-Evaluate a site showing signs of degradation, selected by you, using the assessment form you developed.
-Plan a rehabilitation program for the degraded site you evaluated, including
- a two year schedule of work to be completed;
- list of quantity and type of materials required;
- approximate cost estimates.
-Explain the effect different plant species may have resisting soil degradation.
-Explain how different plants can have different impacts upon the chemistry of their environment, including both air and soil.
-Evaluate the significance of a group of plants, to the nature of the microclimate in which you find them growing.
-Compare the appropriateness of twenty different plant species for different degraded sites.
-Determine plant varieties, suited to each of six different degradation situations.
What This Course Can Do For You
This course provides all the information you need to know to set about restoring native landscapes. Students will feel confident in their decision-making and be able to work out viable plans for reviving degraded sites. It is applicable to different types of landscape, no matter where in the world you are based. Take this course if you wish to work in, or are currently working in, the following fields:
- Conservation or Restoration
- Land Management
- Nature Parks
- Environment Officer
- Parks & Gardens
The course will also appeal to volunteers who are engaged in local re-afforestation and tree planting projects.
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