Climate

Cricket bats grow best in these regions:

• Acheron River Flats
• Yarra River Flats
• Yea River Flats
• or similar

Environment

The carbon cycle is complex. It involves a number of processes where carbon atoms rotate throughout the living world, the atmosphere, oceans and the Earth's crust. A carbon cycle has various sinks, or stores, of carbon and other processes where the various sinks exchange carbon.

Human activity adds many billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere each year. More than half of it is retained within our atmosphere, the remainder absorbed by trees, vegetation and the oceans.

Willow Blue will grow by absorbing carbon dioxide from the air and converting it to plant tissue through the process of photosynthesis.

It is estimated more than 120 billion tonnes of carbon is exchanged between all living things during photosynthesis and respiration each year.

Human activity burns fossil fuels at a rate of about 6.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. Soil erosion and other degradation including land clearing contribute a further 1 to 2 billion tonnes annually.

Carbon dioxide produced by humanity and which is added to the atmosphere may seem insignificant in comparison to the amounts being added and absorbed by natural processes, however, our environment here on earth is fragile and clear evidence exists that it is changing because humans have upset the delicate balance of nature.

Scientists are working tirelessly to understand how the carbon cycle operates and adjusts to the changing amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Meanwhile emission-trading schemes to encourage tree plantings to store carbon are underway at the Global level.

The real fact of the matter is... the Willow Blue Cricket Forestry initiative leads the way storing hundreds of tonnes of carbon annually.

At the A.C. MacLaren Willow Blue Plantation at Healesville Victoria (pictured) stores 100 tonnes of carbon annually.