Beyond Our Backyard

Early August was Landcare Week and our local team celebrated with the completion of a little video, Beyond Our Backyard. It highlights our landcaring efforts, showcases the wrap technique for treating large quantities of weeds and celebrates our local bushland. The video was created by Suzanne Pritchard on behalf of the CPPA as part of a Digital Storytelling course sponsored by the Sustainable Neighbourhood Alliance.

What we’ve been weeding

Landcarers spend a lot of time weeding because that releases the natives from the

grip of super tough, vigorously growing, abundantly seedy weeds that can easily gain an upper hand and outcompete the locals for light and water.

We have a list of over 100 common weeds that we deal with in our local reserves. They flower and seed at different times of the year and each have a particular extraction technique.

The weeds we’ve been dealing with lately include; 

Mother of Millions aka Bryophyllum delagoens - removed by carefully plucking them out of their camouflaging hidey-holes and bagging them up for a trip to the tip.

Thunbergia alata

Black-eye Susan aka Thunbergia alata,not the threatened species but the orange petalled-black centred weed with dainty fragile stems that need to be traced back to the ground and carefully dug out by the roots.

We’re constantly dealing with exotic grasses that escape from under the fence of neighbours, or are brought in on equipment and vehicles of maintenance crews. Buffalo grass gets chipped out with a mini mattock, Guinea grass can be chipped out or cut with a gyprock knife in a circular sweep around the roots.

Turkey rhubarb tuber...mmmm

Another favourite that puts some variety in our landcare session is Turkey Rhubarb-Acetosa sagittata. This rambling, arrow-leaved, vigorous vine smothers anything in its path, produces a mass of wind borne seeds and grows an amazing chain of underground tubers, which provide quite a bit of enjoyment whilst digging them out.

Having a fun time with Fungi

Spiky fungi discovered

If you’ve been out in the woods today you’re in for a big surprise. It seems the moisture and temperature have produced the right combination for many fungi to fruit and so become visible. On one day of landcaring purple and slimy ones, orange, yellow, brown and big–white and spikey fungi were all found.

Identifying fungi has become a little easier with ‘A guide to common fungi of the Hunter-Central River Region’ being released and available online.

The guide provides some interesting insights into fungi.

They are the second most diverse group of organisms in the world, after the arthropods. Despite their abundance there is little known about them, probably because you can’t see them most of the time. It’s estimated there are 36,000 different species of fungi in NSW- 30,000 can’t be seen with the naked eye and of the rest only about 3000 have been formally identified and named.

So what’s all the fuss about fungi? Firstly they are the main decomposers and recyclers in forest ecosystems being one of the few organisms that can break down the tough bits in wood (lignin). Also whilst they’re recycling the wood they make mineral and nutrients, especially carbon available for other plants, they also secrete a kind of glue which creates structure in the soil. Finally, in about 80-90% of land plant species there is a special relationship with the underground fungal filaments (mycorrhiza) that enables plants to access phosphorus, an element not readily available for plant uptake in Australian soils.

The amazing thing is that the plants can have more than one fungal partner and the fungi can have multiple plant partners creating a very complex and interwoven web that makes understanding how forests work rather tricky.

Spiky Fungi 1 week later

Fire & Restoration : working with fire for healthy lands

The Nature Conservation Council's biennial 2-day Fire and Restoration conference was a fantastic opportunity to hear practitioners, scientists and agencies share their findings and the latest research on using fire to assist with restoration projects. With a Hazard Reduction Burn for the protection of community assets in preparation for one of our landcare sites at Coal Point, the conference was very relevant.

The Stansfield Reserve is a 5.5ha parcel that is bounded by residences, including land owned by the Progress Association. It has been overrun by a variety of weeds ranging from ground Asparagus fern to Olive and Privet. Manual removal and chemical treatment has been attempted in the past but the resources required to transition the vegetation back to a weed-free system were beyond the capacity of the landcare group. The Asset Protection burn has provided a unique opportunity to gain some environmental outcomes in a reserve that really was in the 'too hard basket'

How Stansfield Reserve got to the state it is in became clearer when one of the speakers Andy Barker, a Vegetation Ecologist, described the transition process of vegetation communities, from treeless ecosystems to forest and open forest to rainforest. He explained how different burning intervals determine what type of vegetation community is retained or changed. For example, a grassland with regular burning will remain a grassland, if burning doesn't happen taller tree species will enter the system. There is then a window where another burn will kill these 'new' species and retain the grassland, if a burn doesn't happen then these new arrivals will be big enough to survive a burn, continue to grow and reproduce, this is the fire resistance threshold. By excluding fire in the landscape this threshold is regularly passed and so we see a transition as new plants, often weeds start to dominate.

More food for thought when Tein McDonald, from the Australian Association of Bush Regenerators, described the impacts of 'mesic weed shift' upon native bushland. When fire exclusion is coupled with long term weed presence a degraded bushland state occurs because native seed and bud banks are depleted. Weeds such as Olives and Privets, because of their fleshy (mesic) leaves, increase the humidity and shade making bushland areas become incombustible and increasing the rate of decomposition which destroys the seed bank. Tein emphasised the aim of bush regeneration should be to reverse the 'mesic shift'. This altered species composition is common in areas that have not been burnt for a long time, at Stansfield Reserve, this means the Spotted Gum Open Forest plant community that should be flourishing is not.

The process of being able to use fire as a tool in the restoration tookbox is a very complicated one. Talks on the operational and planning logistics were enlightening. One exercise to conduct three hazard reduction burns and research on about 3ha at North Head, Sydney, to assist the recovery of the Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub, an Endangered Ecological Community required 18 months of extensive planning and multi agency collaboration. Agencies involved were NPWS, Police, Rural Fire Service, and included shutting down the whole North Head reserve for a day, having a ferry on hand in case evacuation of a school group at the Quarantine station was needed, planning in case the harbour had to be shut down for smoke or the nearby biogas facility exploded or smoke entered ventilation tunnels. The exercise cost $250,000. At the other end of the spectrum Hornsby Council's 1st ecological burn in a 3ha reserve bounded by residents cost $5000 plus the support of Rural Fire Service and took eight years of planning.

Why would you go through such protracted and extensive processes to attempt a burn? Because the outcomes are proving to be outstanding. At Hornsby the species have doubled and the risk to adjacent property diminished. The ongoing maintenance of the reserve will be possible by the very small bushcare group.

Other speakers talked of the process to maximise the gains from a burn. The importance of pre-burn preparation and post-burn followup was repeatedly emphasised.

The Hornsby scenario provided lots of ideas to incorporate into the local action at Coal Point. Their site had been undergoing a mesic shift as well so in preparation for the burn they undertook some weed control prior to the event to manipulate the fuel load on the site. A statement repeated at the conference was that pyro-diversity leads to biodiversity. Different plants respond differently to varying fire intensity.

The pattern of vegetation recovery after a fire was discussed with various categories of ‘responders’ now identified. There will be some species that decline, some will increase, some will be lost, new species may emerge, some will be seeding laggards, others resprouting laggards and some plants will be multitaskers. Identifying how different plants respond is important for assisting the recovery of the ecosystem after the fire as targeted weeding strategies can be put in place.

LMCC's Bushfire Management Officer, Craig Holland, has issued the Bush Fire Hazard Reduction Certificate for 2.56ha of land off Stansfield Close, it is valid till March 2018. Although the burn was muted to go ahead last year, and this year, the delay has provided an opportunity to undertake more preparation in order optimize the environmental benefits from the process and assist in the long term environmental recovery of 5.5ha of bushland assets.

The Progress Association is in the fortunate situation of having bush regeneration resources available through the Threatened Species project to undertake preparation activities such as treating the woody weeds before the fire and following up after the burn.

TSLS project update

To date the majority of the bush regeneration activity of the Threatened Species Last Stand (TSLS) project has focused on the public reserves along the peninsula. In 2014 an expansion of the on ground activities will support local landholders. 

Monthly Sunday sojourns around neighbourhood nodes will aim to provide opportunities to learn about the local natives (and weeds) and bush regeneration techniques as well as meeting adjacent neighbours who border your ‘bigger backyard’.

Starting in February 2014, two bush regenerators will be on hand on the 1^st Sunday of the month from 10am-1pm to provide demonstrations on weeding techniques, conduct backyard audits to help identify natives and weeds, investigate nest box opportunities and recommend plants to strengthen the wildlife corridor. 

On Thursday 19^th December from 11am-1pm, at Progress Hall, there is a chance to meet the folk involved in the project and find out more about when the on-ground crew will be close to your home.  

Bush regenerators, landcarers and the Project Steering Committee will all be on hand to chat about and celebrate the achievements of the year. A BBQ lunch will be provided. RSVP by 13/12/13 is essential to cppa.tsls@gmail.com or Suzanne 0438 596 741. 

A great Grant for Getting help on Bushland blocks

There is a funding opportunity to support bush regeneration on public and private land. The $250,000 grant runs over six years.

The closing date for the application is 14/2/12. The Progress Association is putting in an application and would like to include as many interested property owners as possible.

The Community Bush Regeneration Large Projects Stream of the NSW Environmental Trust is a new grant that recognises that it takes time and effort to get the upper hand on weeds. The aim of the grant is to facilitate projects run by local community groups to undertake large, long term bush regeneration projects.

The grant also aims to improve the capacity of communities to protect, restore and enhance the environment by strengthening local community organisations whose primary purpose is to undertake works in their local area.

This grant is perfect for the community the Progress Association supports and the objectives for which the Association was established. 

One of the features and assets of the Coal Point community is the large number of big bushland blocks that form a mosaic of public/private land along the length of the peninsula.

Patches of the bushland are almost perfect, in a weed free way, but then there are pockets of severe weed infestations that would be daunting to most mere mortals.

The bushland corridor that we call home is also home to a couple of threatened species, the ever-so-cute Squirrel Glider and the pretty in pink Tetratheca juncea.

There are not a lot of government grants that will fund work on private property, but this one does! This provides a very rare chance to get that helping hand or ten that many people have been waiting for.

Lake Macquarie City Council’s Landcare Officers have agreed the project has merit and at the bare minimum a successful application would result in the public land receiving the benefits of professional bush regeneration teams.

However the long term legacy of the project would be greater if private land holders were also included in the bush regeneration activities.

Do you want your bushland block included in the grant?
Part of the application requires the details of the parties that own or have legal responsibility for the proposed project site. If you own the land, this means you. 

If the application is successful formal permission will be required, for the time being it will be enough to include the location of your block so it can be put on a map and a statement that you’re interested.

Please contact Suzanne Pritchard, the person who is writing the funding application with your details or enquiries by Tues 7/2/12 either by email to coalpointprogress@gmail.com or 
by phone  4969 1500 during the day, ask for Suzanne, or in the evening 4959 6741.

Some initial ideas that will be incorporated into the project are:

• Lots of Bush Regeneration, including weed removal and planting for and slope and foreshore stabilisation
• a series of field days along the peninsula to provide weed identification training and removal techniques
• installing habitat features to enhance the Squirrel Glider corridor so that it can extend its range.
• providing a plant swap of local plants for natives to replace fruiting weeds such as Asparagus fern, Privet, African Olive with local natives
• A community event or two in the hall to share pictures of the amazing local flora & fauna
• Community celebrations of major outcomes
• A changeable weed of the month sign to help with targeting weeds
• Other ideas are most welcome.