by Shane Sody

In discussion about climate change and the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions, you might have heard about "carbon capture and storage". This means drawing down carbon pollution from the atmosphere. There are machines that can do this, very slowly and expensively.

But other, cheaper devices exist to draw down carbon from the atmosphere.

These devices are called trees!

In Reservoir Park / Kangatilla (Park 4) near the corner of Lefevre Road and Main North Road, these tiny trees are growing well. They have been planted here, by the City of Adelaide, as a demonstration site, for "Biodiverse Carbon Offset Plantings"

These seedlings will grow into a "mallee box woodland" - the type of vegetation that was found here before Europeans arrived in the 1830's.

This plantation is serving two purposes. Not only does it capture carbon from the atmosphere, but because the plantation contains a diverse array of species, it will eventually provide habitat for a range of native insects, birds and animals.

*Location of the new plantation in Reservoir Park / Kangatilla (Park 4) near the corner of Lefevre Rd and Main North Rd*

It's a small step towards reversing generations of native vegetation clearance and loss of biodoversity on the Adelaide plains.

As the song goes, "From little things, big things grow!"

This location, in Park 4, had a very different purpose throughout the 20th century. For more than 90 years, this patch of land was home to the Fitzroy Croquet Club.

*Players from the Fitzroy Croquet Club at this same location in 1962*

Their greens and shed were removed in 2004 and now this forest is emerging instead.