200,000 trees planted for Koalas!
There’s amazing news from the Koala Clancy Foundation in Australia.
They’ve just planted 200,000 trees!!! A fantastic achievement!
The story of how the Koala Clancy Foundation started is told here by Eliza in the video below, and it’s quite incredible.
Back in 2006, a devastating bushfire in the Brisbane Ranges, VIC, caused the loss of a wildlife foundation. Founder Janine Duffy was then a citizen scientist, doing independent koala research, and the following ten years involved doing research to find out more about wild koalas, the problems they faced and the solutions needed to tackle those problems. The research work became far bigger than a personal project – and as a result, the Koala Clancy Foundation was launched in 2015. The first trees were planted in 2026.
Many of you will remember seeing the news of the horrible fires in the Black Summer of 2019-2020. Everyone started to plant trees for koalas; and the Koala Clancy Foundation now had a mission: after doing some calculations back in 2020, they worked out that to save the koalas of the Yu Yangs, it would be necessary to plant 300,000 koala trees by 2030.
On a very special afternoon in July 2026, members and volunteers united to plant 2,236 trees, shrubs and wildflowers – and one of the trees they planted was tree number 200,000!
In 2020, 9,000 trees were planted – and now, efforts have gone to planting 30,000 plus a year! The Koala Clancy Foundation expects to hit 300,000 trees by the winter of 202399. And the range of species being planted has increased – now, there’s an average of 40 species in every planting! These species include hardy wildflowers for insects, long-lived wattles which fix nitrogen, and They range from small, hardy wildflowers to draw insects, to long-lived wattles that fix nitrogen, eucalypts of several species to feed koalas.
By 2030, many of the Foundation’s planting will be established forests and home to many different species, including koalas. And - great news - koala sightings have already tripled in just one year after tree planting! Take a look here!
A fantastic effort, and it just shows what small group can do when they unite!
3rd August: More exciting news!
Right at the end of July, the Koala Clancy Foundation emailed to say that last year, they planted a whopping 7,440 native plants on the Barwon River in Stonehaven, VIC. The landowners gestured towards another paddock on their property – and asked, did the Koala Clancy Foundation want to plant there, as well?
Of course, the Foundation said yes – and another 13,045 natives have been planted there – so that’s 20,485 plants in total!!
The area had just a thin corridor of habitat along the river bank, and although koalas can move along the river, there’s no substantial forest habitat to settle in and call home, as it were. The planted habitat means that the corridors will lead to two HUGE forests, where koalas can settle and be joined by other animals such as kangaroos, wallabies, possums, birds and insects!
A huge thank you from the UK to the landowners for thinking of the koalas and doing something wonderful to help them, and also to everyone involved in the planting and making this project happen!
Join in and help the Koala Clancy Foundation plant trees!
You can donate $10 (Australian) to plant a tree. At the time of writing, the Foundation is VERY close to hitting its $50,000 target - but there are still 100,000 trees to go!
Together, we can build a future for koalas!
The beautiful photo at the top of this blog is by Steve Franklin on Unsplash. Thank you, Steve!
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