New Connecting Country Project – Woodland Birds
Posted on 2 July, 2012 by Connecting Country
Connecting Country is pleased to announce that it has been successful in obtaining funding from the Victorian Government’s Communities for Nature program to implement the first year of its four-year project “Enabling Woodland Birds to Thrive in the Mount Alexander Region”. Scientific research has shown that this bird community is in decline and under threat from habitat reduction. The project will increase the extent and condition of bird habitat through through the Mount Alexander Shire and immediate surrounds using an approach combining on-ground works on private land with community engagement, education, monitoring and other related activities (click here for more information on this new project).
This project will commence soon, and we are currently advertising for a Project Coordinator to manage its implementation (click here). There will also be many oppportunities for the community to be involved in various aspects of the project. More details to follow over coming weeks and months.
CC submission to draft Regional Catchment Strategy
Posted on 29 June, 2012 by Connecting Country
Connecting Country has made a submission to the North Central CMA draft 2012-2018 Regional Catchment Strategy. Click here to view the submission.
Assistance with Grant Writing
Posted on 21 June, 2012 by Connecting Country
The Mount Alexander Volunteer Network is holding free grant-writing sessions for community groups. The sessions which will take place in Maldon, Castlemaine and Newtead and are to assist groups with applications for $5000 Federal Government volunteer grants. Click here to view a brochure with the details.
Weed Watch – Gazania
Posted on 8 June, 2012 by Connecting Country
The following information was originally published by Geraldine Harris in the Castlemaine Naturalist newsletter, and has been kindly re-written by her for the Connecting Country website.
Some plants become environmental weeds when they escape from our gardens into the surrounding countryside and start competing with local native indigenous species. I want to look at how some of these infestations can be controlled and which native plants can be used in their place.
Our native plants cannot be expected to perform as vigorously as pest plants that have been selectively bred for survival over hundreds of years. However, getting rid of pest plants and replacing them with native species will help preserve the integrity of our local habitats, attracting and providing resources for more native birds and other animals.
Gazania linearis
Gazanias are the large daisy-type yellow flowers that are escaping from private gardens and appearing more and more abundantly along our local roadsides and in bushland throughout Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and New South Wales.
These very showy plants originated in South Africa and are being promoted in many plant nurseries as a tough drought resistant species. Many hybrids have been developed in cultivation between Gazania linearis and a closely related environmental weed species Gazania rigens. These plants produce abundant wind-blown seeds that can be dispersed many kilometres from the source, producing ever-increasing patches of gazania that compete with locally indigenous species. Gazanias also have the ability to re-grow from their bare roots, which enables them to spread into our bushland by the dumping of garden waste containing the tuberous root systems of these plants. Native animals tend not to eat them as they are low in nutritional value. Continue Reading »