Western Farm Trees

Western Farm Trees is a dispersed environmental planting project located across six land holdings in the Western Australian Wheatbelt, with sites spanning broadly between 250 to 400 kilometres north, east, and south-east of Perth. It was registered in May 2015 and covers a project area of 1,668.04 hectares.

Environmental and mallee planting projects under the Carbon Farming Initiative involve establishing permanent plantings of native tree species at a density that will achieve forest cover. This methodology typically requires a stocking density of at least 200 stems per hectare in order to reach a minimum of 20% canopy cover and a height of two metres. This specific project establishes a mix of permanent mallee eucalypts and mixed-species environmental plantings on land that was predominantly cleared and used for agriculture for at least five years prior to the project's commencement.

The Western Australian Wheatbelt region is heavily utilized for broadacre dryland agriculture, primarily focused on winter cropping such as wheat, barley, and canola, alongside sheep grazing. The region experiences a semi-arid to Mediterranean climate characterized by low to medium winter-dominant rainfall. Soils across these project sites typically consist of sandy loams, gravelly sands, and duplex soils with clay subsoils.

Interestingly, this aggregation project was initially set up by CarbonQuest Australia. However, due to concerns regarding their own long-term capacity to undertake the project, CarbonQuest transferred the management to Corporate Carbon Solutions in 2016. The project is designed to deliver both environmental and economic benefits to the participating farming communities by restoring native vegetation, providing shelterbelts, creating a new carbon income stream, and enhancing overall drought resilience.