"If you want to know about rehabilitating sites without having to do a degree, this is a good place to obtain the knowledge necessary to get you up and running. It offers hands on and practical." - Tracey Morris Dip.Hort., Cert.Hort., Cert III Organic Farming.

This course develops an understanding of environmental systems and the rehabilitation of degraded landscapes. You learn about seed collection, storage and germination, propagation, plant selection, establishment techniques, controlling pest & disease after planting. It will give you the skills required to maintain healthy rehabilitation systems.

There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. Approaches To Land Rehabilitation
2. Ecology Of Soils And Plant Health
3. Introduction To Seed Propagation Techniques
4. Propagation And Nursery Stock.
5. Dealing With Chemical Problems
6. Physical Plant Effects On Degraded Sites
7. Plant Establishment Programs
8. Hostile Environments
9. Plant Establishment Care
10. Rehabilitating Degraded Sites

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

• Develop the ability to write the scientific names of plants and to identify and compare different types of land degradation and rehabilitation alternatives.
• Outline the basics of ecology concepts and how soils, flora and fauna interact and affect one another.
• Develop basic seed propagation skills and knowledge.
• Describe further propagation and nursery techniques.
• Describe the effect of plants on improving chemical characteristics of a degraded site.
• Determine the physical effect plants have on improving a degraded site.
• Determine appropriate plant establishment programs.
• Determine procedures to care for plants, during establishment in a hostile environment.
• Determine techniques to maximise plant development in land rehabilitation situations.
• Determine the management procedures and rehabilitation requirements of degraded soil.

• Determine ten different examples of land degradation on different sites.
• Develop a risk analysis for a specified site to be rehabilitated, by determining a variety of plant health problems which may impact on the success of plant establishment.
• Analyse the failure of plants to grow successfully on a visited land rehabilitation site.
• Develop a procedure to enhance the success rate of land rehabilitation plantings on a degraded site visited by you.
• Describe the use of mulches, to maximise plant condition in a specified land rehabilitation tree planting project.
• Determine factors which affect the viability of establishing five different species of plant seedlings, from five different plant families; on a specific degraded site.
• Prepare production schedules for a plant species, using different propagation techniques, summarising all important tasks from collection of seed to planting out of the tubestock.
• Calculate the cost of production for a tubestock plant, according to the production schedule developed by you.
• Estimate the differences in per plant establishment costs, for tubestock, compared with direct seeding methods, for planting on a degraded site.
• Describe three different methods of planting trees for rehabilitation purposes.
• Describe an appropriate method for preparing soil for planting, at a proposed land rehabilitation site in your locality.
• Evaluate plant establishment techniques used by two different land rehabilitation programs inspected by you at least twelve months after planting was carried out.
• Determine the needs of plants after planting, on two different proposed land rehabilitation sites.
• Describe two different, efficient ways, of catering to the needs of large numbers of plants after planting.
• Collect pressed specimens or photographs of twenty trees for a herbarium of suitable trees for rehabilitation, and including information on the culture and care of each tree.
• Describe different types of soil degradation, detected in your locality.
• Determine the risk factors involved in soil degradation, relevant to your locality.
• Compare two different alternative methods of treating each of three different soil degradation problems identified and inspected by you.
• Develop an assessment form to use for evaluating the sensitivity of a site to land degradation.
• Evaluate a site showing signs of degradation, selected by you, using the assessment form you developed.
• Compare different approaches to land rehabilitation, to determine strengths and weaknesses of alternative options on a site to be rehabilitated.
• Determine techniques to maximise plant development in land rehabilitation situations.
• Explain the different ways of producing seedling trees for land rehabilitation purposes.
• Determine appropriate plant establishment programs.
• Develop procedures to care for plants, during establishment in an hostile environment.
• Manage the rehabilitation of degraded soil.
• Explain the effect of plants on improving a degraded site, both physically and chemically.