| 2010 planting weekends | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 |
04 - 05 September 2010 | 18 - 19 September 2010 | |
| 2010 planting weekends | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
04 - 05 September 2010 | 18 - 19 September 2010 | |
With your help, 2006 could be our best year yet. We already have 20-25 planting sites lined up, and more are in the pipeline. The list includes:
Following two or three years of focus on the western part of the district, we turn attention to the eastern and southern parts. Once again the aim is to improve habitat quality on the roads themselves, and ensure better connections between many isolated bush remnants.
Squirrel Gliders and babblers will certainly benefit from the work, and we have high hopes that the Brush Tailed Phascogales in Upper Lurg will be able to make their way down to Lurg.
Targeted roadsides this year include:
We have over 170 nest boxes already in place, with Sugar Gliders and Squirrel Gliders nesting in nearly all of them. This year we will probably find our first phascogales in residence, so that will be exciting!
Checking the boxes is a first rate opportunity to enjoy some close contact with these delightful little creatures, and it helps us collect valuable research data that guides our future actions. For example, we've recently replaced a number of older boxes that needed repairs, and removed many feral bee colonies, so there should be lots of vacancies for dispersing juveniles when they move out of home this autumn.
There's a BBQ on Saturday evening, some spotlighting after dark, bush navigation practice for the keen map readers, and many delightful bushland areas to enjoy in the process! See nest box weekends for further details.
Mistletoe infestations are a clear sign that natural checks and balances are not working any more. We've been successful in lopping serious infestations by cherry pickers, but it makes even more sense to tap into the natural biological controls.
Common Brush Tailed and Ring Tailed Possums prefer mistletoe over tough eucalyptus leaves, but often there are no tree hollows to provide them with the necessary shelter. So this year we will place about 30 nest boxes in some heavily infested bush blocks and monitor to see if the possums will eat the mistletoe and bring it back into balance.
Many thanks to students from Galen College who produced some sturdy nest boxes that should be ideal for the experiment.
We've had some encouraging reports from landholders who've had these friendly birds living in their gardens all summer. There have even been big groups of a dozen or so at times, with adults feeding young! So it's a promising sign for a better breeding season this year.
Local volunteer Nigel Lacey will again be surveying the entire Lurg Hills district this autumn, and would appreciate some extra eyes to help with the watching and counting. Please give me a call if you would like to have a close look at these delightful birds and also help with this important research.
We are offering four planting weekends again this year, and we've managed to avoid both Fathers' Day and the Grand Final! The August dates are 12-13 and 26-27, in September the weekends are 9-10 and 23-24.
Please mark the dates in your calendar and talk with your friends and various clubs about organising a party to join in. For details about rendezvous times and places, what to bring, accommodation, meals and even some light entertainment, see the planting weekends page.
Ray will be happy to offer a slide show to groups interested in learning about the ecological issues we are tackling, and the results achieved over the past 11 years. (And Ray's slide shows are not to be missed!)
With Patterson's Curse becoming more of a problem in some parts of Lurg, it seems timely to get the best information on bio-controls available. Currently four agents are being released, and two are established in the Warrenbayne area.
Debbie Hill has kindly offered to help people learn how to collect these agents and establish our own breeding populations to spread around Lurg. It will be some time after the rains come. Contact Ray Thomas if you are interested.
Our annual meeting and BBQ is a chance to celebrate achievements of the past year in the congenial company of other interested people. This year we are also providing a free bus tour of selected work sites to give participants an overview of our activities and successes across the whole district.
The tour will look at:
It's at Cleadon, the home of Rob Richardson and Alana Johnson, Alexander Road (off Kilfeera Road). Meet at 2.45pm for the bus tour to start at 3pm. We will return to Cleadon for the AGM & BBQ at 5pm. Please let us know if you'd like to be part of these events, to help us with catering.
Finally, we wish to thank our growing list of financial supporters, both government and non-government, for providing resources to help us get the work done:
The year behind us was one of our best. We propagated and planted more seedlings, constructed more fencing, restored more habitat sites, protected more fertile creek flats, and even enhanced 2 significant wetlands.
Call Ray on (03) 5761 1515 or email to register your interest, and we'll work out arrangements to suit you.