IF you have Mallee oil trees on your property, you could be getting up to $20 a tonne for them.
Many farmers planted Mallee oil trees in 2002 when there was a plan to sell them to the State government, however the plan fell over and now there is a new problem, what to do with the millions of trees planted.
Instead of farmers getting frustrated and deciding to rip them out, one company, InterEarth, would like you to contact them first.
It is looking for farmers with existing Mallee tree plantations who would like to get paid for selling their biomass.
"Some farmers are ripping them out right now, and if that's the case we say to them don't burn them, we will take that biomass and bury it, under our patented burial system," said InterEarth chief executive officer Howard Carr.
"We can get carbon credits for their trunks, roots, everything.
"We can also put our harvester into the standing Mallee's, harvest the above ground biomass and allow the Mallee's to regrow, giving farmers that return on investment they originally wanted."
The idea is simple.
Mr Carr said by growing native Australian trees on marginal land, the trees absorb carbon from the atmosphere, the trees were harvested and placed in a burial site suitable for the biomass, sequestering the carbon and receiving carbon removal credits as a result.
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InterEarth is looking for its own land, however in the meantime, and while it is getting its plantations up and running, it wants to establish contracts with farmers to harvest existing trees, and lease a small area of land for burial.
"The burial site is very small - roughly one hectare for every 3000 hectares of harvested biomass, so the burial area is very tiny but we do need to have a long-term lease," Mr Carr said.
"It's important that we can access the burial site for ongoing testing and show our customers that we have tenure over the title."
The company plans to established its first plantation in winter 2023 after purchasing land.
When Inter Earth acquires its own land, it will be looking to start a small testing site of 400 hectares, then scaling up to 5000ha, 10,000ha and 25,000ha in subsequent years.
"We want to be planting in marginal areas, right out on the fence, places that are drought prone or have unreliable rainfall," Mr Carr said.
"We then want to try and imitate the natural woodland that was there beforehand so it's got a canopy, understory and groundcover.
"To do that we will be planting 14 different species of native trees in a mixture depending on soil types and typography."
Inter Earth isn't targeting the Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCU) , instead focused on the European Voluntary Carbon Market.
- More information: Go to inter.earth
