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Heartwood Podcast

Heartwood Podcast

By: Rowan Reid
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About this listen

Welcome to our new Podcast series. I'll be sharing my 40 years experience in growing trees on farms for both conservation and profit with stories from our own farm and interviews with some of the many farmers I have worked with around Australia.


Key words: Forestry, Farm Forest, Forester, Trees, Agroforestry, Regenerative Agriculture, Landcare, Timber, Lumber, Sawmilling, Bushfood, Carbon, Biodiversity, Soil Conservation, Farming, Environment, Plantation

I'm open to suggestions for content and am happy to takes questions.

Hope you like it.

Rowan

I'm a forest scientist (B.For.Sci. & M.For.Sci.), author, educator and a tree grower with a family farm in the Otway Ranges of southern Victoria, Australia. We call it the Bambra Agroforestry Farm and grow more than 70 different species for conservation and profit. After almost 40 years we're now harvesting and milling our own trees, building a house from the timber and selling tree products.

I was also a co-founder of one of Australia’s most successful Landcare groups, the Otway Agroforestry Network and the originator of the Australian Master TreeGrower program. I have worked with farmers in many countries including the USA, UK, Europe, Uganda, Kenya, Indonesia, Vanuatu and Timor Leste.

I have written many books about tree growing: the latest is "Heartwood - the art and science of growing trees for conservation and profit".

WWW: www.agroforestry.net.au

EMAIL: rowan.reid@agroforestry.net.au

FACEBOOK: @bambraagroforestry

LINKED IN: Rowan Reid

INSTAGRAM: bambra_agroforestry_farm
YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/@bambraagroforestryfarm4008


And, thanks to Mountain Grey for our theme music. They are a local Otway band. Check out their music at: https://www.reverbnation.com/mountaingrey


#Trees #Timber #agroforestry #farmforestry #sawmilling #lumber #forestry

© 2026 Heartwood Podcast Nature & Ecology Science
Episodes
  • #6 Thinning to grow fat trees fast(er)

    #6 Thinning to grow fat trees fast(er)
    Feb 22 2026

    Thinning may be the most controversial and poorly understood aspect of growing trees. Whether for conservation, timber or both, competition between trees may be slowing their growth and reducing the quality of your forest.

    In this podcast Rowan explains how managing the 'personal space' around each tree can help create a more valuable forest. He also touches on the risk of believing in a commercial thinning option and why the expectation of a market for small diameter trees has undermined the development of high value forests on farms around the world.

    Photo: thinning our 22-yr-old English Oak plantation in 2017

    Links:

    Our website: https://www.agroforestry.net.au/

    Rowan's papers on thinning and pruning:

    https://agroforestry.net.au/edit/pdfs/pruning%20paper%20afg%20mag.pdf

    https://agroforestry.net.au/edit/pdfs/blackwood%20conference%20paper.pdf

    Our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@bambraagroforestryfarm4008

    Music by Mountain Grey.


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    52 mins
  • #5 Building our Home-Grown Home from Farm-Grown Timber

    #5 Building our Home-Grown Home from Farm-Grown Timber
    Oct 10 2025

    We've spent 5 years building our new farmhouse. Almost all the timber (or lumber) came from trees we planted, pruned, harvested and milled on the farm. You could say it took us 38 years to grow our homegrown home!

    In this podcast I talk about growing and building the timber framing, boardroom concrete fireplace, stairs, lining, cabinets and flooring using a range of species we've grown on our own farm including Radiata Pine, Eucalypts, Redwood, Oak and Blackwood.

    To achieve the log size and wood quality I had to carefully manage the trees by pruning and thinning, and the milling on the bandsaw had to focus on quartersawing.

    Links:

    Our website: https://www.agroforestry.net.au/

    Landline story showing the harvesting and milling of the tree we used for the stairs: https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/programs/landline/2023-02-26/forestry-foresight:-reaping-the-rewards-of-agri/102025432

    Our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@bambraagroforestryfarm4008

    Wood information: https://www.woodsolutions.com.au/wood-species

    Melbourne Books - purchase a digital copy of "Heartwood - the art and science of growing trees for conservation and profit" by Rowan Reid: https://melbournebooks.com.au/products/heartwood

    Music by Mountain Grey.

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    59 mins
  • #4 Changing forestry so it works for farmers

    #4 Changing forestry so it works for farmers
    Apr 26 2025

    Can we change forestry to make it attractive to family farmers? In this episode Rowan Reid reflects on the history of forestry on farms in Australia and his involvement over the last 40 years. It's clear that forestry is not working for farmers and we need to change the way we talk about and support forestry in the family farming landscape.

    Key words: Forestry, Farm Forest, Forester, Trees, Agroforestry, Regenerative Agriculture, Landcare, Timber, Lumber, Farming, Plantation

    Rowan's media:
    WWW: www.agroforestry.net.au

    FACEBOOK: @bambraagroforestry

    LINKED IN: Rowan Reid

    INSTAGRAM: bambra_agroforestry_farm

    YOUTUBE CHANNEL: https://www.youtube.com/@bambraagroforestryfarm4008

    Thanks to our friends at Mountain Grey for the theme music:
    www.reverbnation.com/mountaingrey/songs

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    Support the show
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    1 hr and 3 mins
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