Rain forest trees ready to plant.

When we acquired the land, it was rundown and degraded farmland, which required a massive effort to remove invasive weeds and trees and prepare the land for planting. As there was very little regeneration of the native rainforest, we had to resort mainly to revegetation.

This video shows a sample of revegetation at Bodhi Tree Forest Monastery, including new plantings and views of the endemic subtropical rainforest we have established since 2006.

Bodhi Tree Koala Habitat Project

Since 2012, Bodhi Tree Forest Monastery has restored approximately 6 hectares as a viable Koala habitat. Of the 1500 koala food trees planted, the “Friends of the Koala” donated one thousand koala food trees, which are now thriving!

We now plan to extend the Koala Habitat to about another 10 hectares. We aim to maintain the current planting and remove invasive weeds to prepare for further plantings.

Bodhi Tree Forest Monastery is a volunteer-based, not-for-profit registered charity under the umbrella of the Buddha Dharma Education Association Inc.

While we have limited resources, we have succeeded since 2006 in planting up to nine thousand endemic rainforest trees and clearing large areas of invasive weeds and trees to restore the wildlife habitat.

We have received valuable help in funding and expertise from the Enviro Fund, Lismore City Council, EnviTe and, for a time, the Green Army.

We now seek volunteer bush workers and funding to progress this project.

MAKE A DONATION

Please contact:

Ven. Pannyavaro (Pannya)
Founder & Resident Monk

Bodhi Tree Forest Monastery
78 Bentley Rd, Tullera NSW 2480

All donations help us restore the endemic rainforest and provide wildlife habitat during droughts and bushfires. Click the screenshot or the link to learn how to help our unique wildlife refuge.

Since 2005, when we acquired 95 acres (36.91 hectares) of land for a Buddhist Monastery and a Community Retreat Centre, our focus has been restoring the subtropical rainforest, which had been destroyed, leaving the land in a degraded state with invasive trees and weeds.

Since colonisation, more than 99% of the original subtropical lowland rainforest in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales has been cleared, leaving just remnants filled with endangered plants and animals. Our effort is and remains the restoration of critically endangered rainforest habitats.   

The landforms and tree cover at Bodhi Tree naturally divide the land, making it easy for different activities to coexist here. From two streams with beautiful rock pools, the land rises to a large flat plateau on which the new retreat complex is being built.

There is a good balance of cleared and reforested land with many surviving rainforest trees. The creek valleys have plenty of flat and gently sloping areas. The 15-acre plateau of rich red soil has expansive and uplifting views and is a natural choice for the retreat centre, which we have started building.

Bodhi Tree’s flowering rainforest trees and scrubs

The Rainforest Regeneration and Revegetation Project at Bodhi Tree

We started the revegetation project in 2006 with a grant from the Envirofund; with just one volunteer and myself, together we planted approximately 1,500 rainforest trees along our creek, which now badly need weeding. – are there any volunteer bush workers who could help?

Since then, we have extended our bush regeneration and revegetation project with the expertise of EnviTE, assisted by the Green Army. We have planted approximately 10,000 local rainforest trees and koala food trees – donated by the Friends of the Koalas, including fruit and nut trees, which are now all thriving!

Bodhi Tree has received a grant from the Lismore City Council’s “Rural Landholders Initiative” project to extend our bush regeneration work and rehabilitate endemic rainforest trees. With that help, we have planted another 1000 trees to increase our reforesting effort to approximately 10,000.