Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

The Guildford Progress Association has written a considered letter to the Mount Alexander Shire to express concern over plans to prune the tree in the interests of its long term health [see our Post]. It essentially argues that the proposed pruning is unnecessary and potentially damaging to the tree. The Association’s letter can be found at this link. The letter is worth reading for the detailed case it makes for leaving the tree as it is, naturally altered by the cyclone of early this year; and it asks that the Council supply a credible arborist assessment before any work is done on the tree.

 The Camp Out on the Mount is on again next weekend, 17-18 October.  As well as the Pine Purge on Saturday there are lots of other activities. To find out more click on the poster to the left. There is also more information on the Connecting Country website.

Powerful Owl and prey at Newstead by Patrick Kavanagh.

Newstead residents and readers of the Natural Newstead blog may be familiar with the spectacular and rare Powerful Owls, which have very successfully raised young down by the Loddon River. But what are the lives of these magnificent nocturnal hunters really like? And how do they sustain themselves and feed their young? Newstead Landcare member and PhD student Emmi Scherlies has been researching the lifestyles of these remarkable birds and will let us into their secrets at Newstead Landcare’s October presentation and AGM.

Don’t miss this great opportunity to discover more about Australia’s largest owl. The presentation will be on Thursday October 15^th starting at 8pm at Newstead Community Centre and will go for about an hour. A very brief AGM will follow and then some light refreshments. All are welcome to attend. Gold coin donations would be appreciated. Bookings not necessary.

For more information ring Frances Cincotta on 5476 2691 or Patrick Kavanagh on 0437 663 345.

The Federal Department of the Environment estimates that estimated that weeds ‘cost Australian farmers around $1.5 billion a year in weed control activities and a further $2.5 billion a year in lost agricultural production. The real cost of weeds to the environment is difficult to calculate, however it is expected that the cost would be similar to, if not greater than, that estimated for agricultural industries.’

John Ellis has unearthed the item at left from the Mount Alexander Mail, December 1857. The thistle was declared as a noxious weed in Victoria in 1856. Apparently the Mail‘s urgings weren’t heeded, because it’s now Victoria’s most widespread weed ,  and covers over a million hectares around Australia. Before you get depressed by that figure, it’s worth noting that this is only a fifth of the area it covered before control programs started in the 1960s. Weeds can be fought!

There’s an interesting moral in the Mail‘s sermon, too: get in early, before the problem gets out of hand. If only we’d done that with bridal creeper, for example: a few years ago its spread was a fraction of what it is now. That’s more motivation for those attacking outbreaks of Chilean Needlegrass.

It’s well known that one of the problems with walking on the GDT is the lack of water, which probably discourages some walkers from undertaking ambitious distances on the track.

A small dent in this problem is about to be made, with the launch of the GDT’s  FIRST watering point on the Leanganook Track section of the Goldfields Track (between Bendigo and Castlemaine) next Friday [October 16].

It’s located East of the Goldfields Track, next to the Coliban Channel and near the Parks Victoria dry campsite.  Mandurang South Road is close by. It’s on map 30 of the Goldfields Track Walking Guide .

Coliban Water is GDTA’s partner in this great initiative and importantly, they have announced that they will ‘host’ the tank for track users. If the system works for walkers and bike riders there’s a chance more tanks will be put in on the track.

The launch will be at 11 am, and it’s catered. FOBIF members are invited to attend: RSVP to Alison Lanigan at gdtatrail@gmail.com

We’ve received a response from DELWP to our questions about the scalping of Fryers Ridge Road. You can read it by clicking here: Fryers Ridge Rd DELWP response

The key paragraph runs as follows:

‘Roadside scalping is sometimes used where the verge needs heavy vegetation and debris removed and the ground profile flattened to allow future maintenance to be carried out by slashing; to widen the mineral earth part of the road as part of planned burning preparation…; and if resource limitations have prevented an annual slashing program to be maintained causing an accumulation of heavy growth on the roadside.’

There are three reasons here, the first two of which do not apply to the Ridge Road. The third, however–the reference to ‘resource limitations’– confirms our suspicions: that scalping is used as a cheap method of achieving your ends when you’re short of cash. So, although it’s generally considered a bad way of going about things, managers are forced to use it anyway.

It’s clear also, from this letter, that roadside clearing often happens in ignorance of what might be getting scraped into oblivion: there’s no effective monitoring of its biodiversity effects. And although managers generally need to comply with clearing regulations, these only come into play if something ‘important’ is known to be in the relevant area. In the absence of detailed monitoring, this often comes down to the judgement of the manager in question.

We have serious disagreements about the decisions made to scalp the Ridge Road, and other tracks in the Fryers Ranges, and believe that in most areas there was no ‘heavy growth’ on the roadsides.

In another communication to us from the Environment Minister, we’ve been invited to discuss values of roadsides with the responsible Terrestrial Biodiversity Manager. We’ll take up this invitation.