Forester and author Rowan Reid doesn’t want grants for tree planting projects.
Planting trees isn’t the challenge he says, the challenge is changing the way people think about trees.
Over the past 30 years Rowan has used any funding he receives to change perceptions about growing trees for timber on farms here in Australia and in countries around the world.
Reid, founder of the Master TreeGrowers Course and the Otway Agroforestry Network, one of Australia’s most successful Landcare groups, helps farmers understand the economic, environmental and aesthetic value of incorporating trees into their operations.
For decades Rowan Reid understood that as we burned, clearfelled, milled and chipped our way through Victoria’s native forests the day would come when we’d need to take responsibility for growing timber and fibre ourselves.
This finally happened in 2024 when the Victorian government wound up logging in our public native forests.
Bringing forestry and farming together is incredibly powerful.
To harvest a sawlog out of a native forest all the vegetation around it is clear-felled and burned, releasing massive amounts of CO2. Continually growing timber trees on farms however, sequesters CO2 and means the huge stores of carbon locked up in standing forests can be preserved.
Agroforestry’s double-positive effect applies equally to preserving the water cycles and biodiversity that are disrupted by native logging. Handily, agroforestry also improves farm incomes.
There’s something less tangible that Rowan Reid points to as a critical factor in changing the way we think about trees and farming – beauty. Reid says the transformative power of beautiful treed landscapes and the special places that trees create should never be underestimated.
The other intangible in Reid’s process is peer-to-peer learning. The sharing of information and experiences, the mentoring and social support with no agenda is the secret glue that binds the several hundred strong Otway Agroforestry Network.
Fair Wood, CERES timber social enterprise, exists in large part because of the success of Rowan’s Master TreeGrowers course and the graduate farmers who planted trees which are now ready to harvest.
As part of this year’s Melbourne Design Week, Rowan Reid, along with architect and Fair Wood co-founder, Paul Haar, are talking about agroforestry, beauty and the future of timber at the Fair Wood Warehouse.
Thursday 22nd May 2025 6.15-7.30pm
Tickets are free, you just need to sign up here.
Rowan Reid is the author of Heartwood and co-founder of the Otway Agroforestry Network. He is an internationally recognised leader in farmer education. More than 10,000 visitors have toured his Bambra Agroforestry Farm, which is set up as a forty-two-hectare outdoor classroom for farmers, scientists, students and tree lovers, and a living laboratory for his own learning.
