by Spencer Shaw, October 2015.
As the old saying goes “if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there, does it still make a sound?” This often causes one to pause and say either “of course it does” or the eyes of the listener to wander as this existentialist conundrum confounds and questions, the nature of reality!
My new version of this saying – in an age when we need to be planting trees in massive numbers, rather than waiting for them to fall (so as to achieve enlightenment), is “If a tree seedling is planted in the field, grows to be part of a forest, sequesters carbon, becomes a source of life and biodiversity for the wider ecosystem, improves water filtration and quality in the landscape, and even looks pretty, but then eventually dies and falls over, only to again sequesters carbon, becomes a source of life and biodiversity for the wider ecosystem, improve water filtration and quality in the landscape, does it actually matter if it makes a sound when it falls over?” My thoughts are no, not really… Planting, growing, making life is what really matters, that’s all really (I’m sure that quite possibly that there is something deep and meaningful in this, but I’m too much on the material plane to get that perhaps…)
So where are you going to get your trees to plant I hear you say, well our exciting news is the opening of our first ever retail nursery premises “Forest Heart” at 20 Coral Street, Maleny. It’s a project that’s been a decade or more in the making, with the seeds sown many years ago and it’s something we’re really looking forward to bringing into fruition! Our aim is for this to be on your one stop shop in the heart of town for local native plants, bush foods, timber trees, native gardens, tools and equipment for Revegetation and Bush Regeneration, Books, DVD’s, Art and so much more. The focus of Forest Heart is to work directly with you the landholder and the wider community to restore, appreciate, learn about and work with our amazing local biodiversity through education and practical hands on work through gardening, revegetation and bush regeneration. Forest Heart is the new public face of Brush Turkey Enterprises and enables us to deal directly with the community which is where our heart truly is!
After 6 months of hard work removing weeds, restoring the building (an old Maleny Butter Factory workers cottage), fencing, reshaping, mulching and at last replanting the block with local native plants we are at last ready to open our doors and welcome you to our new venture, so drop in and say g’day, check out our stock and most importantly get planting!
Grand Opening on the Friday 27th and Saturday the 28th of November
