Summing up a few recent happenings that might be of interest…
The last couple of weeks have been diverse and interesting to say the least!
On the 7th of November, I had the privilege of being invited to present at the SA State Landcare conference in Adelaide on the topic of wetland restoration. I covered a range of scenarios and situations of how wetland restoration is able to be integrated within private and public land management: the main message being that every case is different and we are happy to work with landholders to explore their options to get a good environmental and land management outcome. More information on our program to restore wetlands on private land can be found here.
Thanks to Gerry Butler and the rest of the organising committee for putting on a great community-led event.
Gerry Butler closes the highly successful 2013 SA State Landcare Conference in Adelaide
Then on the 11th November, Dan and I had the opportunity to accompany Oisín and Cassie (from DEWNR) on a trip up to the Minimay district, where we were hosted by Andrew and Ros Bradey of the Kowree Farm Tree Group. This highly active local community group are working with a range of other organisations to protect, restore and manage woodland habitat on parcels of land purchased by Bankmecu as part of their conservation landbank initiative. The cluster of adjoining properties that we visited are in various stages of the restoration process, and are a great example of a very practical approach to conservation – something we outcome focussed people at NGT are very inspired and motivated by.
Thanks to Andrew and Ros for sharing both their afternoon and tremendous local knowledge with us – we learned a lot and had a great time.
Natural Buloke regeneration on the Bankmecu Conservation Landbank property at Minimay. This species of tree provides a key food resource for the nationally endangered South-eastern Red-tailed Black-cockatoo.
Finally on the 15th November, along with about 70 other people (a great turn out!), I went along to hear Sean Dooley speak at the City Hall in Mount Gambier about his lifetime of bird watching experiences, culminating is his “big year” of bird watching around Australia about 10 years ago. Thanks to Sean’s ability to tell a good humorous story, this was an entertaining and informative evening for all. NGT was really pleased to be able to support Birdlife South East SA, who hosted and organised the evening and subsequent field trips (well done Bob and others!), by helping to promote the event.
Bob Green thanks Sean Dooley at the end of his talk in Mount Gambier on the 15th November 2013.
