Wide Open Agriculture Regenerative Tree Farmer Project

Wide Open Agriculture Regenerative Tree Farmer Project is an environmental planting project located across multiple agricultural sites in Western Australia's Wheatbelt and South West regions, including properties near Buntine, Boyup Brook, and Kendenup. It was registered on May 27, 2022, and covers a total project area of 8,573.96 hectares.

The land across these regions is predominantly used for agricultural purposes, such as broadacre cropping and livestock grazing. Due to the vast geographical spread of the participating properties, environmental conditions vary significantly. The northern sites in the Wheatbelt, such as Buntine, experience semi-arid to moderate rainfall and face challenging dry seasons with rocky, dry soils. In contrast, the South West sites near Boyup Brook and Kendenup generally receive higher rainfall, supporting beef cattle operations and extensive biodiversity in loamy and clay soils.

The project utilizes the Environmental Plantings methodology, which involves establishing permanent mixed-species plantings of native trees on land that has been predominantly used for agriculture for at least five years prior to commencement. These native plantings must be established at a density sufficient to reach a forest cover standard, typically requiring trees to attain at least 2 metres in height and 20% crown cover.

Originally registered as the Paraway Tree Project, the project updated its name in early 2024 to reflect the collaborative efforts of Wide Open Agriculture Ltd and Wyloo Pastoral Co. Wide Open Agriculture operates the popular "Dirty Clean Food" brand, and this project serves to directly integrate their regenerative farming practices with carbon sequestration. Early stages of the project involved planting 30,000 trees across farms in the Buntine area, which required dedicated manual watering via trucks to help the seedlings survive an exceptionally dry spring. Additional plantings have been driven by community tree-planting weekends in the Great Southern region, aiming to build nature corridors, improve soil health, and combat salinity.