Good morning, and welcome to the 22nd edition of our monthly newsletter, Reading Landscapes.

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

Like us to discuss a photo of your landscape? Share it with us here.

PA has a way of describing a degraded landscape that sticks with you long after you first hear it.

He says it's like looking at the fossil of a dinosaur. You might have the head, the left arm, and the right foot - scattered pieces of something that once worked as a whole. Your job isn't to build something new. It's to recognise the pieces still in front of you, understand how they once connected, and start working to put the puzzle back together.

That's what reading the landscape is. And it's where Natural Sequence Farming begins.

Reading the landscape is the process of looking at a piece of land and understanding how it once functioned and what it needs to function that way again.

It's about learning to see three things at once: the physical features that shape the land, the patterns of water moving through it, and the plants that are responding to both.

A ridge isn't just a ridge. It's the start of a small watershed - the boundary that tells you where water begins its journey. A step in the slope isn't just a change in gradient. It's a place where water once slowed, spread, and soaked in. A cluster of rushes in an unexpected spot isn't a weed problem. It's the landscape telling you there's moisture coming to the surface or the soil is waterlogged.

None of this is hidden. It's all there, written into every paddock, every gully, every hillside. You just need to learn the language.

It starts before you leave the house.

Getting an aerial topographic map of your property and spending time with it. Tracing the contours, identifying where ridges meet valleys, and following the lines that show you where water wants to go gives you the foundation. You can see the big picture from above in a way you can't easily see from the ground, especially when you're only at the start of your journey.

But you can't stop there. You can make a rough plan from the map, but you can't rely on it alone. You need to get on the ground and see exactly what's going on with your own eyes.

That means walking it. Observing it. And asking questions as you go.

What plants are here, and how much diversity is there? A paddock that looks green and healthy might actually be hiding a simplified plant community that's barely holding the soil together. Where are the steps - those places where the slope eases slightly before falling away again? That's where water once slowed. Is it still slowing there? What are the old water flow patterns, and are they still working? Where is water leaving the landscape, and why?

Together, the map and the paddock start to tell the story. And the more landscapes you walk, the faster you learn to read them.

Once you can read a landscape, you can start to work with it.

You'll know where the water is being lost and where it could be held. You'll see where the system is degrading and where it's still functioning and needs protecting. And you'll be able to understand what needs to be implemented across that landscape for each of the 5 pillars of NSF.

Reading the landscape doesn't give you all the answers. But it asks the right questions. And in Natural Sequence Farming, that's everything.

Reading the landscape is the first key section inside our brand new online course, Learning Landscapes - the only place in the world to learn Natural Sequence Farming directly from its originators. The full course announcement is below. 👇

In less than two months, Rehydrate Australia has been watched over 100,000 times on YouTube.

We are genuinely grateful. When we released this film, our goal was simple: get this message to as many people as possible. And you've made that happen.

What moves us most isn't the numbers, it's what sits behind them. The messages from farmers inspired to start. The viewers seeing their own landscapes differently. The community screenings happening in halls across the country. This is the movement growing.

If this film has resonated with you, please share it. Send it to a farmer, a friend, a neighbour, anyone who cares about the future of this landscape. Rehydrate Australia is completely free on YouTube — there are no barriers between this message and the next person who needs to hear it.

Every share takes it further across the landscape.

🎬 Watch and share: https://youtu.be/6DBvweqylv4

Thank you for being part of this.

Let's Rehydrate Australia.

Your dollar is a vote. That's what Jason and Belinda Hagan want everyone to understand.

At McIvor Farm in Tooborac, Victoria, they're raising Berkshire pigs, beef, and sheep using Natural Sequence Farming principles that transform how water and soil work in a landscape. The farm was already built on keyline principles, but when Jason completed the Tarwyn Park Training course with Stuart Andrews in 2019, he saw how to deepen that work. Leaky weirs in the creek. Contours across the hilltop. A farming system designed to build water-holding capacity in the soil, not deplete it.

Even in a dry season, the results are clear. The farm is in a better position because the landscape is rain-ready, designed to receive water when it falls, to hold it, to use it.

But their real message is about you. Every time you buy from a local farm doing this work, you're voting for soil health, water retention, and resilience. Because when customers understand the chain, healthy food starts with healthy animals, healthy animals start with healthy plants, healthy plants start with healthy soil, everything changes.

👉 Watch Jason and Belinda's full story: https://youtu.be/GOap_WoYyPY

👉 Read the complete case study: https://www.tarwynparktraining.com.au/p/the-hagan-s-at-mcivor-farm-foods

Twenty years ago this past Saturday, the first Australian Story aired, and Peter Andrews' vision began to reach beyond Tarwyn Park.

It was never an easy journey. There were years of frustration, dismissed ideas, and doors that stayed closed. But Peter didn't stop, and neither have we. Because we knew something then that we know even more deeply now: this knowledge matters. It changes how people see the land. It changes what they're capable of doing with it.

In the two decades since, we've watched this grow from one man's stubbornness into a movement.

📖 Peter's two books were published
📺 Three more Australian Stories were released
🎓 Tarwyn Park Training was founded, and hundreds of farmers trained
🏔️ An advanced Building Landscapes course was launched
🎬 Rehydrate Australia documentary released
💻 Learning Landscapes online course launched

But numbers don't capture what actually matters.

What matters is that farmers are now choosing differently. That land is being restored. The next generation is learning to read the landscape. That communities are gathering in halls and cinemas to watch this story unfold, and then staying late into the evening to ask: how do we do this on our landscape?

We are nowhere near the finish line. This work is generational, and that's precisely the point. As PA would say, it's all coming together. With three generations of the Andrews family involved, the pieces are moving. And we can't wait to see what it brings.

Thank you for being part of this journey. Your support, your questions, and your willingness to try something different have made everything possible.

Have a plant you’d like to discuss? Share it with us here.

Common Names: Cat's Claw Creeper, Cat's Claw Vine, Cat's Claw Trumpet, Yellow Trumpet Vine, Funnel Creeper, Claw Vine

Scientific Name: Dolichandra unguis-cati

Where in the Succession: Balancer

Thanks to Greg for sending in this month's species, Cat's Claw Creeper.

Cat's Claw Creeper is a perennial woody vine that forms dense growing mats over the surface, outcompeting other ground cover species before heading for the skies, growing up and over trees and shrubs. It can climb up to 30m high on trees or other structures.

Native to tropical America, it can now be found in many regions worldwide. It prefers warm, humid subtropical to tropical climates, tolerating only light frosts in the winter months. In Australia, it is most prevalent along the east coast, particularly Northern NSW into South East QLD.

We believe that Cat's Claw Creeper shares many attributes of a balancer species, with a propensity to grow in landscapes with excess fertility.

Where will I find Cat’s Claw Creeper growing, and why is it growing there?

Cat's Claw Creeper is a fast-growing vine species that prefers a high-fertility growing environment.

It is an opportunistic species, often taking advantage of sites that provide ideal growing conditions following recent disturbance or an increase in available soil nutrients to get it started. Other indicators for where it is found growing can include:

💚 Minimise our soil disturbance. We want to limit opportunities for Cat's Claw Creeper to establish by minimising disturbance to potential habitat areas, such as forest and riparian environments. By focusing on maintaining good ground cover, we limit its ability to take hold.

↘️ Manage the movement of fertility. Being a potential balancer species means it prefers fertility at higher levels, even into excess. Taking this into account, it’s imperative that we manage our landscape to minimise its losses. How can we go about doing that?

🪲 Implement biological control methods. Biological control methods have proven to be the most well-rounded approach to managing the Cat's Claw Creeper. Australia currently has three approved insects for biological control of the plant, which are the natural controls in tropical America. Research is also being undertaken for fungal control¹.

❤️‍🩹 Improve the health of our natural forest & 🌿 Increase the diversity in our forests.

Cat's Claw Creeper is most aggressive and most dominant in disturbed areas, fragmented remnants, and degraded riparian corridors, even though it is also capable of invading more intact forests. The pattern of where it takes over most readily suggests it is often exploiting systems that have already lost canopy continuity, native vine diversity, and competitive ground cover. In that sense, it frequently reads and responds to weakness in the forest system, much like mistletoe on a stressed tree. If the vine is exploiting existing openings, one of the most effective long-term controls may be to remove the opening itself by restoring the structural health of our forests.

Promoting native vine diversity to outcompete the Cat's Claw Creeper is key to that restoration. How can we better manage disturbed areas and assist native vines to fill that niche instead?

💧 Implement water management systems in watercourses & 🌱 Change the vegetation along our watercourses.

One more thought that I put forward is based around our management creating the environment for Cat's Claw Creeper to grow, particularly in our riparian areas. Our riparian areas were once managed by grasses, in particular, reeds, which early settler accounts remark on the vastness of these systems. These landscapes were incredibly well-vegetated and well-hydrated, with a high water table, creating an environment that didn't naturally suit most of our native tree species, hence the dense grass cover. But our management has, over time, changed these environments. Due to erosion, we now have incised flow paths and a much lower water table. In combination with our grazing management, many of the reeds were lost, and the environment was changed. This created conditions better suited to trees, so they began to grow in that environment. I wonder whether the Cat's Claw Creeper, by aggressively removing those trees, is potentially opening space for reeds and grasses to re-establish - if the hydrology were restored.

To fast-track this process, we can step in and repair the hydrology of our landscape. We can manage water in our flow lines with structures and across the greater landscape with contours to raise the local water table and create an environment for our reeds and grasses to grow once again.

I know there are many questions raised in this month's edition. But we don't always have all the answers, and for me, a plant like Cat's Claw Creeper leaves me pondering: why has it come to dominate, and how can we step in to manage it? It's worth saying clearly that none of this is about defending the plant; it's about understanding it. Because the better we understand why something has taken hold, the better equipped we are to manage it for the long term. And in all our thinking, we try not to treat symptoms, but to look for the cause, which often means asking plenty of questions.

🪨 As a Soil Indicator: Soils with reasonable levels of fertility, that are not too wet and have experienced recent disturbance or the mobilisation of nutrients.

🐮 Livestock: Livestock will graze on Cat's Claw Creeper, significantly reducing vegetative cover. But they are unable to access what is growing higher up in the trees, as well as the tubers of the plant in the soil, so this will require additional management.

💊 Medicinal: Cat's Claw Creeper has a history of use in traditional medicine for its anti-inflammatory, antimalarial, and antivenereal properties, whilst also being used to treat gastrointestinal pain². It has also been used in herbal medicine to treat dermatitis².

🍽️ Consumption: No documented uses as a food source.

Something we've been working toward for a long time is finally here.

For over a decade, we've been teaching Natural Sequence Farming in person. Now we've built a way for anyone, anywhere, to access the same knowledge - without leaving home.

Learning Landscapes is a fully online, self-paced course that takes you through the complete NSF framework. From reading your landscape, to the 5 Pillars, to a hands-on plan you can start applying on your own land. It works at any scale, from the backyard to the farm. No prior experience needed.

This isn't a passive watch-and-forget experience. It's built around getting you outside, making observations, and putting knowledge into practice - with a live community alongside you the whole way.

If you're ready to start seeing your landscape differently, we'd love to have you along.

A quick list of our favourite things we’ve been watching, reading, listening, and writing.

Farm Learning: Tim has been busy releasing some excellent videos that are well worth your time. So here are three of them to add to your watch later list on YouTube. Learn about recovering from fire with TPT graduate Callum, why paddocks stop holding water and how to fix degraded soils with Stuart and Phil Mulvey.

How China blew up its own future: This video is a fascinating watch, not only for all the data and research that go into population tracking, but also for how a country like China can go from one population extreme to another in such a short period of time.

How to live an intellectually rich life: This is an excellent read sharing how easy it is for us to get stuck in our ways, recycling the same things over and over. I think it's especially relevant in our space, where it can be tempting to fall for the 'silver bullet' or believe that doing one system 'right' will solve everything. It's a great reminder that context, curiosity, and ongoing experimentation matter far more than any fixed recipe or methodology - and that a truly regenerative mindset starts more with how we think, not just how we farm.

The Anxious Generation: As someone who came of age right as smartphones and social media arrived, and now mostly avoids them, I found this book both confronting and clarifying. Haidt makes a compelling case that we’ve accidentally run a massive, uncontrolled experiment on kids by swapping a play-based childhood for a phone-based one, and that the results are now showing up as anxiety, loneliness, and fragility. It’s not anti-tech so much as pro-childhood, with some clear, practical ideas for families and communities who want to do things differently.

Project Hail Mary: Book + movie. This is a very enjoyable story. A smart, funny, and surprisingly moving sci‑fi that’s as much about problem‑solving and friendship as it is about space. The new film adaptation is also excellent, but as I'd always say: start with the book, then enjoy the movie as a bonus lap.