The year ahead

Posted on 27 January, 2020 by fobif

We recently sent a fobif newsletter to our members. We have reprinted a version here for our members and supporters who may not have received it.

Welcome to 2020 – a year with a difference and with many challenges across Victoria and Australia. The smoke haze is a reminder of the current and future threat of fires and the damage that they bring to communities and to our natural environment. We will continue to put relevant posts on the FOBIF website – please send any links that you think will add to our understanding.

Join or renew FOBIF memberships
The 2020 membership form is now available. Please note that you need to return this form by email or post if your contact details have changed or if you are a new member. If you are paying by bank transfer use your surname for the code. Membership paid in the last 3 months of 2019 with cover 2020. 

Open committee meetings
Remember FOBIF committee meetings are open to all members. They are held at the Castlemaine Community House building, Templeton Street, Castlemaine, on the second Monday of every month from February to November, at 6pm. Come along and have a say.

FOBIF 2020 walks program
Thanks to the organising team, the 2020 Walks Program has been planned to cover a wide range of locations and interests Check the website before each walk for any alterations. 

FOBIF books and greeting cards
This year saw a new printing of our Wattles of the Mount Alexander Region. This book as well as Eucalypts of the Mount Alexander Region and Mosses of Dry Forests can be purchased through our website or at Stoneman’s Bookroom

We also produced eight greeting cards which feature photographs of our local bushlands. Photographers are Joy Clusker, Patrick Kavanagh, Damian Kelly, Geoff Park, Bronwyn Silver, Bernard Slattery and Noel Young. They are available through our website as a set of eight for $20 including postage. 

Marie Jones
FOBIF President

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How will fire change Victoria?

Posted on 12 January, 2020 by fobif

The Victorian National Parks Association has recently provided an analysis of environmental issues related to the bushfire crisis:

Victoria is one of the most fire prone places on earth, and this is being made a far more severe problem by human-induced climate change.

And while fire has long been a natural disturbance in the Victorian bush, in recent years many of our special natural areas have been experiencing fire too frequently, allowing insufficient time for habitat recovery. Even our normally fire-resistant temperate rainforest areas are burning, a situation which they have not evolved to cope with. Read more here. 

Sadly, many animals have been killed and will continue to perish following the fires.More here. 

This is devastating for endangered species like the brush-tailed rock wallabies of the upper Snowy River, but also for common species already experiencing a decline in populations.

Here lies the challenge: many species are not given time to replenish before another threat comes along, whether it is more fire, predators, pest animals such as deer which eat regrowth and trample already polluted wetlands and waterways –  or the logging of either burnt or unburnt areas.

Once these fires are controlled, we will need urgent surveys, condition assessments and expert management advice and action for the recovery of critically threatened species and highly localised habitats. Every bit of unburnt bush is now a vital refuge for the recovery of species, especially in East Gippsland and the North East. See more here.

See the VNPA website for the full article which concludes with links covering: 

  • evidence-based articles on the latest bushfire crisis
  • organisations to support if you want to help
  • websites with current safety information 
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Christmas wishes

Posted on 12 December, 2019 by fobif

The FOBIF committee wishes all friends of our forests a happy Christmas and a great new year. We’ll be sending out a membership renewal form and the 2020 walks list in January. Our 2020 walks program will also be available on our website.

FOBIF members and supporters at the end of the year celebration on 9 December.

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Here’s an interesting rainfall figure

Posted on 9 December, 2019 by fobif

As a follow up to our note on the BOM/CSIRO local climate guides, we’ve come across a Bendigo Advertiser 1991 table of rainfall in Bendigo over the period 1863 to 1990.

The average annual rainfall over that 127 year period was 553 mls. The average for the period 1989 to 2018 has been 460 mls–a drop of 93 mls per year. So, if you’re old enough to have decided things are getting dryer around here, you’re probably right…

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Another pic to add to our road maintenance portfolio

Posted on 9 December, 2019 by fobif

We’re constantly and boringly on at DELWP and Parks Victoria about their road maintenance practices, which as often as not consist of gouging a few extra inches out of the bush. It’s not often we see them gouging a bit of their own infrastructure, however. Usually when you see metal guide posts knocked over you can assume it’s some wandering motorist. At this point on the Porcupine ridge road, however, it’s pretty obvious it’s a maintenance job.

Porcupine Ridge road: the metal traffic guide post has been crushed by the grader. It’s a useful proof to us that the road has actually been widened. And the post only costs $12.32

Well, they don’t cost much…but it is a pretty tricky spot on the road, and a visible reflector post would be quite handy at that spot. The post on the other side of the road at the same place has been crunched too–presumably in the same improvement exercise.

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