In recent years, a number of scientists and land managers have been researching how local native plants are going to survive our changing climatic conditions.
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Through countless generations of reproduction, plant species adapt to the specifics of their environment - including local soils, temperatures, and rainfall.
But what happens when the climate changes faster than plants are able to adapt?
For thousands of years, temperature and rainfall have remained relatively stable.
Under climate change, we are increasingly experiencing changes to long-established patterns. Projections for south east Australia are generally for hotter and drier conditions in the future - the current summer is a prime example of what we can expect.
One approach to helping plants survive a changing climate is by carefully introducing greater genetic diversity into existing plant populations. With greater genetic diversity, it is likely that plants will be better able to adapt as temperatures and rainfall become more variable and extreme.
Yass Area Network has jumped at the chance to help plants in the Yass Valley become more resilient to changing conditions.
Through the 'Climate Ready Revegetation Project', a number of volunteers have painstakingly researched which plants of the Yass Valley also grow in places that are hotter, drier, colder and wetter.
To start with, they have selected four species to work with. For each of these four species they are sourcing seed from more extreme environments.
YAN nurseries will be growing plants from this seed, and then the team will be watching carefully to see how well the plants survive compared to plants grown from local seed.
For more information on this project, check out the YAN project page - http://yan.org.au/projects
