When you think about carbon offsets, what comes to mind?  Tree plantations, neat rows of plants in guards, large scale plantings, feeling smug when you drive your car?  At the Arb, we are asking – where does all the seed and plants come from for such large scale carbon offset projects? 

As one of only 3 restoration seedbanks in Victoria, the Goulburn Broken Indigenous Seedbank, operating under Euroa Arboretum, currently supply over a third of the seed for revegetation work and plant nurseries in Victoria.  We know we don’t have the seed resources in our bushland to supply the expected demand for 20,000 hectares of revegetation work across Victoria. 

We recently raised these concerns with Annabelle Cleeland and Susie Bate and shared with them our Growing Seed Strategy for the Goulburn Broken Catchment.  The strategy outlines our plan to increase the supply of seed, ensure that the seed is climate adapted to cope with hot, dry conditions, and is genetically robust.  We would love you to read our strategy which will be on our updated website in May – support us in developing large scale seed orchards to meet the demand for seed.