Certificate of Tree Rehabilitation

Unit 1 – Approaches to Land Rehabilitation

• Caring for the environment
• The importance of trees
• ‎erosion control
• Understanding plants
• Understanding plant identification
• Land management programs
• Biodiversity
• Soil degradation
• Types of soil degradation
• Erosion
• Human causes of erosion
• Types of erosion
• Water erosion
• Wind erosion
• Control of erosion
• Salinity
• Sources of salt
• Control methods for salinity
• Soil acidification
• Compaction and chemical residues
• Rehabilitation

Unit 2 – Ecology of Soils and Plant Health

• Biomass
• Constituents of an ecosystem
• Abiotic components
• Biotic components: the living organisms
• Ecological concepts
• The web of life
• Relationships between plants and animal
• Indigenous species
• Creating habitat corridors for wildlife
• Benefits for indigenous vegetation and local landowners
• Situating and types of corridors
• Design considerations
• The “edge effect”
• What can happen at “edges”
• Soil and how they develop naturally
• Mechanical weathering
• Chemical weathering
• The soil environment
• Soil composition and micro-organisms
• Organic matter
• Water, air and soil temperature
• Mycorrhizae
• Soil physical characteristics
• Soil texture and structure
• Identifying your soil type
• Soil chemical characteristics (soil pH)
• Cation exchange capacity
• Adjusting pH
• Ph and nutrient availability
• Buffering capacity
• Improving soils
• Plant nutrition
• The macronutrients
• The micronutrients
• Choosing the right fertiliser
• Organic versus inorganic fertilisers – which is better?
• Diagnosis of nutritional problems
• Pests and diseases
• Plant growth
• Environmental factors
• Biological controls
• Lifecycles and pest lifecycle
• Preventative control

Unit 3 – Introduction to Seed Propagation Techniques

• Seed propagation
• Seed sources
• Four main sources of seed
• Maintaining genetic identity in seed
• Hybrid seed production
• Why do plants produce so much seed?
• Collecting and harvesting seed – guidelines
• Selecting plants to collect from
• Timing
• Methods of collection
• Cleaning and storing seeds
• Germination treatments
• Soaking in boiling water
• Stratification (moist chilling)
• Fire
• Leaching seeds
• Sowing your seeds
• When to sow
• Propagation media
• Containers for propagation
• Plastic seedling trays
• Sowing directly into pots
• The bog method
• ‎Pricking out or tubing seedlings
• Quality control – the U.C. System of soil mixes
• Rules to maintain sanitation
• Production system
• Propagation stage
• Transplanting stage
• Growing on stage
• Distribution stage
• ‎Sources of seed and information
• Books on seed sand seeds germination

Unit 4 – Propagation and Nursery Stock

• Asexual propagation
• Why use cuttings
• How to propagate a cutting
• Classification of cutting types
• Softwood cuttings
• Semi-hardwood (greenwood) cuttings
• Hardwood cuttings
• Nodal cuttings basal cuttings root cuttings
• Selecting and planting out stock plants
• Treatment throughout the year
• Stock plants for root cuttings
• Ways of getting roots on difficult to root cuttings
• Hormone treatments
• Improving strike rate
• Nursery hygiene
• Spreading of pests and diseases
• Recommended nursery hygiene practices
• Propagating mixes and potting soil mixes
• How to maintain plants in pots
• Removing the plant from the container
• Potting a small plant into a larger pot
• Feeding and watering
• Ventilation and light and temperature
• Growing-on areas for container plants
• Hardening-off rooted cuttings
• The greenhouse structures
• Heated or unheated
• Siting greenhouses
• Greenhouse benching
• Problems with greenhouses
• Environmental controls and factors in the greenhouse
• Temperature control
• Greenhouse irrigation methods
• Run-off and leachate
• Sound irrigation practices
• Irrigation systems and overhead spray lines
• Flood benches and capillary watering
• Trickle irrigation
• Pulse watering and watering cans
• What is a perched water table?
• ‎Other structures for growing plants
• Cold frames and heated propagators
• Shade houses
• ‎Production areas
• How to propagate different species

Unit 5 – Dealing with Chemical Problems

• Soil contamination
• Symptoms on plants of chemical contamination
• Soil contamination
• Symptoms on plants of chemical contamination
• Foliage burn
• Treating foliage burn
• Rehabilitating damaged soils
• Prevention is the first step
• Accidental spillage
• Some rehabilitation methods used
• Using plants to extract contamination
• Growing plants on contaminated soil
• Rehabilitating a building site (home garden)
• Soil chemical composition and plant growth
• Alkaline soils – growing tolerant plants
• Dealing with soils that are lime contaminated
• Trees which grow in lime soils

Unit 6 – Physical Plant Effects on Degraded sites

• Rehabilitating a degraded site
• Pioneer plants
• Site protection
• Windbreaks/shelterbelts
• Windbreak design
• Designing and planting a firebreak
• Maintenance: points to remember
• Fire resistant plants
• Plants which are more likely to burn include:
• Stormwater, waterlogging and drainage
• Drainage
• Water-logging on a home-site
• Wet areas
• Improving drainage on heavy clay soils
• Create a bog garden in areas that sometimes dry out
• Constructing a sump
• Soil compaction

Unit 7 – Plant Establishment Programs

• What to plant where
• Climate and temperature
• Frosts, wind and hazards
• Microclimates
• Plant selection criteria
• Availability and cost of obtaining plants
• Ease of handling and establishment
• Sundry materials and labour costs
• Ongoing costs vandalism, pruning, fertilising and watering
• Longevity and general hardiness
• When to plant
• Plant protection methods (staking and frost and sun protection)
• Mulching and fencing
• Wind protection

Unit 8 – Hostile Environments

• Areas hostile to re-vegetation
• Planning
• Rehabilitation techniques
• Coping with dry conditions
• Overcoming dry soils
• Mulch
• Mulch materials
• How to lay mulch
• Commonly used organic mulches
• Mulch materials
• Weed management
• Useful weeds
• How are weeds spread
• Preventative measures
• Weed control
• Commonly used herbicides
• Trees and large shrubs which tolerate salt (temperate climate)
• Plants which tolerate salt (warmer climate)

Unit 9 – Plant Establishment Care

• Planting procedures
• Deciduous and bare-rooted plants
• Water and plant growth
• Transpiration
• Maintaining appropriate water levels
• Symptoms of water deficiency
• Symptoms of excess water
• Period of watering
• Minimising plant water requirements
• Plant health – conducting an inspection
• Diagnose plant troubles

Unit 10 – Rehabilitating Degraded Sites

• Environmental assessment
• An environmental audit
• Implementing a land rehabilitation management program
• Determining land objectives
• Pants for a rehabilitation program
• Replanting