This is Koala Retreats fifth year running. Creating “so to speech a Noel’s Ark of Koala Food” and supporting our program on a yearly basis is Adventures, Pathfinders & Youth Club from Mountain View group which have been planting trees at the Dragway since 2008.

This year we concentrated on the Dragway strip, hoping these trees will do well as there’s not a lot of top soil available. We all worked very hard adding extra sand and mulch to promote root growth and retain moisture as this particular spot gets quite dry.

Another method to maintain moisture is allowing surrounding vegetation to grow high reducing the amount of direct sunlight drying the ground. By having high vegetation growth actually increases nutrient levels and softening the ground creating less compaction on the ground.

We separate the vegetation from the trees with a heavy thick layer of mulch to maintain moisture and allow the young tree saplings a chance to compete with the surrounding vegetation and eventually dominating the area.

I think Daniel from Mt View Pathfinder’s Club is just a little bit too excited with his tree? Crazy Man!

Again Koala Retreat thanks the guys from Adventurer’s, Pathfinders & Youth Club from Mountain View group for 2011 and look forward to working with everyone again in 2012.