Category Archives: General

Opportunity to join the Grasstree Fellowship

What is the Grasstree Fellowship?

It’s a special training program that has been created for community members, with community input and feedback built into the design. Conservation Volunteers Australia have partnered with two skilled guides (Lina Patel and Matt Wicking) to offer the Grass Tree Fellowship: A special online learning program for up to 50 people who have a connection to or live in the Blue Mountains LGA. Through a facilitated series of evening workshops, participants will be offered opportunities for growth and learning – with the aim of creating stronger, healthier communities and ecosystems for all. 

When the heat is on and the flood waters are rising, we step up and pitch in. We find ways to do what’s needed to support those around us.

In the wake of those moments, we have the chance to find a little space to focus on how we’re working together to make meaningful change happen in the world.

That’s what the Grass Tree Fellowship is about: A freetraining program designed around four online evening workshopsstarting on May 30 to support and empower the doers among us. 

The program will include the following skills training:

* Getting stuff done

* Working with groups

* Advocating for your project

* Staying buoyant and flexible

Registrations are now open for the Blue Mountains online leadership program, they close midnight Sunday 21 May.

You are encouraged to register for the program if you are living or active in the Blue Mountains region, part of a community group, team or network taking action together OR currently getting things done as a ‘team of one’. You must be 18 and Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander people and people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) background are strongly encouraged to register for the program. We have a maximum of 50 places available for the program.

The program is FREE to participate in, being funded by the Australian and the NSW Government under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements. 

Register here: Grasstree Fellowship Registration

Curious and want to find out more?

We have an online information sessions coming up where you will have a chance to meet the team and ask Matt and Lina, our programs guides, any questions you might have  – please register for the info sessions via the links below.

Thursday May 11 @ 11am

For further information, visit our webpage:

A CVA Leadership Initiative – Blue Mountains

Nelly and the Grasstree Fellowship Team

Grass Tree Fellowship
A CVA Leadership Initiative | Wild Futures | Conservation Volunteers Australia

e. grasstreefellowship@cva.org.au
w. cva.org.au

 

Blue Mountains host Volunteer Coordinators Network Meeting

By Steven Fleischman

Did you know that Blue Mountains City Council is a part of the Greater Sydney Landcare Network? Ranging from Campbelltown to The Northern Beaches, including National Parks and Wildlife Services, there are Bushcare groups in Sutherland, Campbelltown, Camden, Liverpool, Fairfield, The Hills district, Blacktown, Warringah, Lane Cove and the Northern Beaches.

On Thursday 9 March, members of the Blue Mountains Bushcare team hosted a Volunteer Coordinators Network (VCN) meeting of 25 Bushcare officers, Landcare coordinators, National Parks Officers and Local Land Services Officers from across Sydney.

Presentations by Program Leader Eric Mahony and Bushcare Officers Jane Anderson and Steve Fleischmann gave visitors deeper insight into Blue Mountains City Councils commitment to storm water management, our relationship with the local Aboriginal community and the remote Bushcare program.

After lunch attendees drove to Whitton Park, Glenbrook to hear Eric Mahony and Shane Grundy, from the Bush Doctor, talk about a bio filter they are building. With an aim of reducing nutrients and faecal coliforms going into local waterways, the biofilter is an important step to improving the health of local waterways.

Personally, I found it incredibly inspiring to meet other officers dedicated to working with their communities at improving the resilience and biodiversity of their local remnant bushland. I feel grateful to be a part of such a large and dedicated Bushcare community in the Blue Mountains.

Response from Volunteers Coordinators Network Meeting using the Bushcare is sign.

Trees Near Me App

Trees Near Me NSW offers a fun way to explore the native vegetation around you.

For those who like to look at mapping and want an interactive program at your fingertips to explore all of Plant Community Types (PCTs) across New South Wales, Australia. You can even go back in time to find out the plants that were in your neighbourhood before they were cleared. Trees Near Me NSW is based on Plant Community Types, or PCTs. PCTs are the finest level of classification in the NSW vegetation classification hierarchy.

You can download the app for your smart phone and find more information here:

https://treesnearme.app/

Trad bio-control

The bio-control Leaf Smut Fungus (Kordyana brasillensisis) being trailed to help contain the growth of the weed Wandering Trad (Tradescantia fluminensis) which impacts plenty of sites across the Mountains. If private landholders would like to access stems of this bio-control fungus, you can contact CSIRO to provide the stems for planting in your Wandering Trad patch.

It was released at these 7 sites:
Glenbrook Lagoon
Else Mitchell Park
Tunnel Gully
Knapsack Creek
Fairy Dell
Mount Irvine
Gloria Park

picture of sign on the sites
The signs that are at the sites where the fungus was released

Join us for the Blue Mountains Bioblitz

The Great Southern Bioblitz event for 2022 will be held from Friday the 28th October until the end of Monday on the 31st, incorporating different communities, areas and regions across the Southern Hemisphere. The platform iNaturalist is a useful identification tool and it benefits communities and professionals to track and store information about species across the world.

At the picnic this year we are using iNaturalist to upload as many observations as we can on this weekend. There will be a crew at the Bushcare Picnic to start you off if you are keen to start but need some help. Or you want to explore the platform.

This is where you will find information on the Blue Mountains project. The dashboard is currently empty as the bioblitz has not started yet. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?project_id=141363

To download iNaturalist to your device https://www.inaturalist.org/ or use the app from wherever you get your apps.

Find out more about the Great Southern Bioblitz on their website
https://greatsouthernbiobl.wixsite.com/website

Regeneration of indigenous vegetation at Third Reedy Lake as it has dried over summer and autumn 2022

Damien Cook

Introduction.  Third Reedy Lake is a freshwater wetland in the Kerang region in north central Victoria. It is part of the Kerang Wetlands Ramsar Site, which means that it is recognised as being of international significance for wetland conservation as it supports threatened plant and animal species and ecological communities and rookeries of colonial nesting wetland birds.

Prior to European occupation this wetland, along with Middle Lake and Reedy Lake, would have been inundated only when floodwaters came down the Loddon River and caused the intermittent Wandella and Sheep Wash Creeks to flow. At that time the wetland experienced a natural wetting and drying cycle, filling up from floodwaters and drying out completely between floods, which occurred on average once every 3 to 4 years.

In the 1920s, however, this natural wetting and drying cycle was discontinued. Third Reedy Lake became part of the Torrumbarry Irrigation Scheme. Water was diverted out of the Murray River at Torrumbarry Weir and made to flow through a series of natural wetlands including Kow Swamp, the Reedy Lakes, Little Lake Charm and Kangaroo Lake to deliver water to irrigate farms. The lakes and swamps became permanently inundated.  While this meant farmers had a reliable supply of water it also profoundly altered the ecology of the wetlands.

To read the full article follow the link below:

Regeneration of indigenous vegetation at Third Reedy Lake as it has dried over summer and autumn 2022