Nyabing farmer joins forces with Greening Australia to revegetate 65ha parcel of salt-affected land

Nyabing farmer Clint Dolan is the one of the latest grain growers to join forces with Greening Australia as it pushes on with its goal of restoring 330,000ha of land nationwide by 2030. It was nearly five years spent looking over the fence at his neighbour’s tree-planting project that prompted Mr Dolan to learn more about generating Australian carbon credit units. After finally mustering up the courage to chat to his neighbour, he started discussions with Greening Australia WA land restoration lead Ruth Cripps about 18 months ago. About a year’s worth of planning was finalised last harvest, with planting starting last month. “Looking over the fence, establishment has been successful,” Mr Dolan said. Mr Dolan has set aside a 65ha pocket of leased land — some of which is arable and some which is “definitely” not — for planting across undulating contours and a flat creek. Trees have been planted in laneways with 40-50m gaps between, and windbreaks to allow the water to slow when heavy rains do occur on the property. Most of the seedlings are saltbush and native plants, with the 65ha pocket essentially “locked up” for five years to allow decent establishment. From there, Mr Dolan plans to graze sheep across the land he used to not “do a lot with”. “That is one of the real bonuses, is that I can still use the land,” he said. “About 10-20ha could have been used to grow pasture. . . but it has become non-productive and I wanted to do something with it to get some value from that 65ha. “I also believe it will slow the spread of salt across the property.” Mr Dolan is in his second year of farming on his own after 30 years of business in a family partnership with his brother after leaving school in the early 1990s to return to the farm. He runs a 3000ha property with a 60/40 split of cropping and sheep respectively, with about 2100 Merino ewes mated this year and plenty of lambs at foot. The 65ha earmarked for planting has been leased from another farmer, and with his tick of approval it has now subleased from Mr Dolan to Greening Australia. While some farmers have raised concerns about carbon farming projects in the WA Wheatbelt, Mr Dolan said he had done his “checks and balances” and felt confident. “Greening Australia has done a significant amount of projects like this,” he said. “The arrangement means I don’t have to cough up the funds for to plant a large area.” Greening Australia will later sell the carbon credits as Australian carbon credit units.