Survival of native seedlings planted by volunteers: The Lower Cotter, ACT case study

Abstract

Volunteer labour is often used for planting native seedlings for revegetation projects. The survival of such plantings is seldom monitored and reported. The overall survival of seedlings at three years of age was assessed for eight years of plantings established by nearly 15,000 volunteers in the Lower Cotter River catchment in the Australian Capital Territory. Mean survival was 66.8% across all years. We conclude that volunteers can be effectively integrated into large-scale revegetation projects if they are well trained and organised