September is Biodiversity Month

As always there’s a lot to celebrate in September. Spring officially starts (although this year I think that was in late July when young Red Cedar’s started to put on new leaf), it’s also Biodiversity Month, Save the Koala Month, Landcare Week, National Wattleday on the 1st and Threatened Species Day on the 7th.

This September is very much time to celebrate our unique flora and fauna – as if you need an excuse! Now is the time to get your hands in the soil, plant a garden (or if your ambitious a forest!), whack a weed or two, build a nest box, plant some fruit trees and veggies.

Living in South-East Queensland we are lucky enough to find ourselves in one of the world’s true Biodiversity Hotspots, with our local native plants alone having a diversity of over 3000 species found in this relatively small region, in the Sunshine Coast Council region alone over 2000 species of plants have been recorded.

I’d like to say that all this amazing biodiversity that also calls this place home is equally lucky to have our company, but that would be stretching the narrative, given the clearance of native ecosystems over the last 180 years ... However, I do like to be optimistic and hope that things are getting better.

Our appreciation of our native flora and fauna has increased dramatically over the last decade or two and, maybe sometime down the track, we may begin to be as comfortable and knowledgeable in this land and the life it is blessed with, so as to begin to approach the relationship that First Nations Peoples have with this country and all of its biodiversity.

Planting local native plants in your gardens and across your land helps create connectivity in the landscape and enables our unique biodiversity to move through the landscape again, ensuring their survival.

We’ve got a huge September planned to celebrate biodiversity at Forest Heart with art exhibitions, nature journalling, photography, bushfood, kids’ workshops and so much more. September 2023 also sees our business, Brush Turkey Enterprises, celebrate our 25th birthday, and our retail nursery, Forest Heart, celebrate its 8th birthday. For more info and a full list of events, visit our website forestheart.com.au