The Taggerty Group Directors played central roles in a Master TreeGrower (MTG) course conducted in the Upper Goulburn region in March/May 2022. Rita Seethaler did most of the organisation and fund-raising, while Tony Richardson presented at the workshop and created a series of YouTube videos documenting the presentations.

The MTG consisted of 8 days (approx 50 hours spread over 2 months) for 25-30 participants (landowners, farmers, contractors and young professionals in the forestry sector). Each course day included expert presentations and visits to one or more agroforestry sites to demonstrate course topics, including:

- agroforestry for conservation and profit;

- markets for tree and forest products and services including bushfoods, fodder, essential oils;

- demand and supply trends for different timber products, prices, trading mechanisms;

- product processes (incl. on-site and off-site milling);

- planning and legislative aspects of a tree farm;

- vegetation classification and species selection, establishment and silviculture, fire hazard reduction;

- optimising biodiversity values of farm forestry looking after old paddock trees, shelter belts,

  beneficial insects and predator birds, environmentally friendly weed and pest control);

- measuring carbon sequestration, opportunities for selling Australian Carbon Credit Units

  from farm trees under the Emissions Reduction Fund and on secondary markets.

All topics were presented by specialists reflecting state of the art practice and latest research. Participants receive practical hands-on experience from multiple site visits, documentation on each topic along with some advice on their own agroforestry plans.

Following the course, a series of YouTube videos were produced featuring each presentation, and some of the questions arising within the participants.

Master TreeGrower Course 2022