Trees For Life is unique in Australia both in its methods and its reach

Trees For Life’s mission is ‘To Revegetate South Australia and protect its remnant vegetation’.

South Australia has a legacy of excessive land clearing. The long term effects of this include loss of biodiversity, plant and animal extinction, soil erosion, increased salinity, reduced water quality and weed invasion.

Trees For Life (TFL) is a wholly South Australian community organisation established in 1981 to promote and assist the revegetation of South Australia and to protect its remnant vegetation.

In general terms, we achieve our aims through:

• Identification, care and maintenance of remnant vegetation
• Production, planting, and care of replacement native vegetation
• Protection of biodiversity through seed collection, storage and utilisation in revegetation projects
• Community capacity building through volunteer recruitment, training and management
• Public advocacy, formal and informal education programs and community engagement to further widespread understanding of the value of native vegetation, bush care and sustainable land management
• Business and scientific partnerships with public, private and non government organisations

In conducting our work, we value:

• sound practice founded on proven scientific principles
• the planting of indigenous native vegetation and the promotion of biodiversity
• the use of locally provenanced seed in our revegetation programs
• protection of existing remnant bush land
• the significant contribution by individual South Australians who volunteer time as volunteers
• the dedication and commitment of our staff
• cooperative partnerships with government, the business community, and other organisations supportive of our purpose, and active community involvement and participation in our activities
• the sharing and mutual support of our purpose across the broad community, in particular the link between country and city

The strengths and unique qualities of our organisation include:

• our ability to marshal and enthuse the support of a dedicated membership base (10,000 members) and volunteer network (3,000 active volunteers) in the achievement of our purpose and processes
• our knowledge and skills in bush care including native vegetation regeneration and restoration, habitat protection, minimal disturbance methods and habitat reconstruction
• our technical skills in site management planning, including the determination of appropriate processes for revegetation or restoration, species selection, strategy execution, and
• successful small and large scale sowing and growing of native vegetation

In meeting our aim we make a substantial positive impact on the ecological health of South Australia. Since our inception in 1981, we have trained thousands of volunteers, grown over 29 million local native species for revegetation projects across the state and we currently manage over 3000 hectares of remnant vegetation to promote natural regeneration and the conservation of threatened species.