Hot off the press: Healthy Landscapes guide
Posted on 11 August, 2021 by Ivan
It has been nearly a year in the making, and we are super-happy to announce that Connecting Country’s Healthy Landscapes guide has arrived fresh from the printers! And, it looks amazing (in our humble opinion!). The 44-page guide has been developed to assist our local farmers and landholders to manage their land for multiple outcomes, benefiting wildlife, property and landscape health. It is targeted to the Mount Alexander region of central Victoria, which makes it unique to our special local area. It forms part of Connecting Country’s Healthy Landscapes project, a Smart Farms project that delivers a series of educational workshops and a land management guide for landholders.
The Healthy Landscapes guide provides background context on our region’s natural assets, as well as eight concise sections on actions landholders can take to protect and restore habitat on their properties in central Victoria.
Topics included in the guide are:
- Protecting remnant vegetation.
- Make a plan.
- Control weeds.
- Control rabbits.
- Revegetate your land.
- Help hollow-using wildlife.
- Manage your dam as habitat.
- Care for paddocks.
The guide features a variety of stunning images, such as these on the front cover from Bronwyn Silver (bush sunset), Jane Satchell (gnarly wood) and Geoff Park (Yellow-footed Antechinus).
‘Landholders often ask us about where they can find information relevant to our region on how to manage their land to benefit the environment and farming,’ said Jacqui Slingo (Landscape Restoration Coordinator at Connecting Country). ‘We are thrilled to have produced a guide that allows landholders, especially the many new property owners in our region, to get started with caring for their property by protecting native vegetation and wildlife habitat through actions like weed and rabbit control.’
We would like to send a huge thanks to the many wonderful contributors in our community, including photographers, volunteer reviewers and experts who generously contributed their time and talents to the guide. Thank you! Thanks also to Jane Satchell, who illustrated and designed visual aspects of the guide, and led us through the layout process through to printing.
Connecting Country would like to thank the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, through funding from Australian Government’s National Landcare Program, for supporting this project.
Copies of the guide will be offered to Landcare and community groups, and available for general sale (around $15 per copy) in Castlemaine through the Castlemaine Visitor Information Centre, Stoneman’s Bookroom and Mount Alexander Animal Welfare (MAAW) Op Shop. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions, or would like further information.
To read more about the Healthy Landscapes project – click here
I was in Castlemaine today and suddenly remembered this item about the book being available at Stonemans. They had it at the front desk and we are reading it now back at home. It is really outstanding and very relevant. Thanks to Connecting Country for their dedication. Brian, Welshmans Reef
thanks Brian, terrific!
Would love a couple of copies for our Newham Landcare group library, can we pay direct?
Hello Helen, we are trying to avoid selling ourselves, as it costs too much to organise without any funding for this. If we wanted to order 20 or so, we could post them, or you could pick them up
What do I need to do to get some copies to sell in my book shop in Maldon?
Hello Mike, we would be very excited if you would like to do this? Do you visit Castlemaine at all, we could leave 20 for you, and invoice you?