Gippsland › Latest news › Southern Rural Water

Community engages on Southern Rural Water 'Carbon Reforestation Proposal' for Blue Rock Lake

Around 60 locals attended Southern Rural Water's consultation on its carbon reforestation proposal at Blue Rock Lake, involving 75 hectares of native trees to offset carbon emissions by mid-2026.

By news@gippsland - 31st October 2024 - Back to News

The community turned out in numbers on Wednesday to have their say on Southern Rural Water's carbon reforestation offsets proposal for Blue Rock Lake. Southern Rural Water hosted a community consultation drop-in session at Willow Grove Community Centre, which was attended by approximately 60 community members and representatives from local community groups, Willow Grove CFA, and Baw Baw Shire Council.

Southern Rural Water's Willow Grove session saw 60 attendees discuss a carbon reforestation proposal to plant 75 hectares at Blue Rock Lake, aiming for net-zero emissions by mid-2026

Carbon offset initiative

Southern Rural Water's carbon reforestation offsets proposal involves planting trees to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to achieve our net-zero greenhouse gas emissions target. It's proposed to plant 75 hectares of new forest at Blue Rock Lake, with a proposed planting start date of mid-2026.

Planting involves a mixture of native and local tree, shrub and understorey species to establish new and permanent forest cover. These projects earn one Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) for each tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2-e) sequestered by trees as they grow.

Community engagement valued

Southern Rural Water Managing Director, Cameron FitzGerald, thanked the community for their participation. "It was great to meet and speak with so many residents and for them to engage with our project team and expert consultants."

"We have made it clear that community safety is paramount to everything we do, and we've demonstrated that commitment in our proposal by implementing several bushfire buffer zones, including at Willow Grove. We believe our proposal strikes a good balance - but we won't make a final decision until we have considered all the feedback from the community," he said.

The community can provide their feedback via a survey on Southern Rural Water's website. The survey will be open for another two weeks until Wednesday 13 November. On the Southern Rural Water website, the Carbon Reforestation Offsets page will continue to be updated with the latest information.

Pictures from Southern Rural Water website.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com