Thursday 25 February 2016

Wetlands for Our Future

World Wetlands Day (2/2/16) has been and gone, but this year there was a gift given that will ensure our local wetland at Carey Bay continues to be strengthened and the problems confronting it addressed.

The first of the gift givers were volunteers from Trees In Newcastle, they tackled one of the most common problems our reserves face, the impacts of garden escapes. Twenty metres away from the Endangered Ecological Community - Swamp Sclerophyll Forest on Coastal Floodplain, was a historic ‘garden-sculpture bed’ which contained many immanent threats to the wetland as well as decommissioned art works.

The weed targets that were tackled included a colossal Cassia tree, fully laden with seeds ready for dispersal by the local birdlife, spider-plants creeping out their tentacles in search of moisture and a wandering wisteria that long ago escaped over the fence. A three hour landcare session saw the healthy weed wall reduced to a mountain of green.
Neighbourly concern about the amount of green waste impeding pedestrian progress around the Pony club saw locals that care for the land combine efforts to address the pile of problematic materials. A trip to the recyclers saw cast off metal scraps removed and friendly neighbours provided a high sided trailer to cart away most of the remaining vegetation.

The following week local landcarers then completed the task distributing logs for habitat and ensuring any seed or weed propagules were dealt with.

Landcaring takes many forms, there are those that can go out weekly as a group, some help when and where they can, it was such a wonderful World Wetland Day gift to receive support from the neighbours, the locals and the landcarers. Thankyou for giving your time and tools.

The colossal Cassia
Slow and steady
A community effort...a great result


No comments:

Post a Comment