Puisniit

I must say that bush regeneration career I started much before I came to Australia : ) This photo was taken in Summer 2008:

On my right Sulo from Finland holds trimming machine and on my left I hold Toomas from Estonia. Great Guys! It was project called "Summer Academy" organized together with Matsalu National Park. Let me explain you what it was all about:

Puisniit it is an Estonian word for "Wooded Meadow". Human is able not only to destroy but also to enrich local environment. Wooded meadows started to appear probably before mowing was invented in the Baltic area. Multifunctional use of the land around settlements, where selective cutting of trees, collecting of twigs for leafy fodder, and grazing were used, in combination resulted in a quite stable wooded meadow like ecosystem already since 4000 years ago. Mowing by scythe from about 2000 years ago gave them their typical form.

The old-fashioned meadow management changed local meadow into one of the world's richest plant community. Only within one small 1mx1m plot 74 species may be found. On those few old meadows which are left we try to go old way again. Believe me, besides trimming machines we used scythes as well : )

source: http://www.zbi.ee/~kalevi/wooded.htm