Baringhup Landcare – Farming & Biodiversity
Baringhup Landcare will be celebrating their 21st year in 2015, and the group’s goals remain diversified and interesting. Members are involved in projects reflecting their interests ranging from sustainable soils to cactus control and bird monitoring. President Colin Jennings is keen to acknowledge that Baringhup Landcare’s involvement with the Mid-Loddon Catchment Network has been instrumental in shaping the group’s future. This, together with an increasing partnership with Connecting Country gives strong support and guidance across a broad range of issues, and an opportunity to share new ideas and a lifetime of experiences.
Activities at Baringhup embrace the varied nature of the group. Soil health has been a focus during Baringhup’s “Farming for Sustainable Soils” project, with biomass in individual farm paddocks being satellite mapped and soil tests are carried out, results over time recorded, discussed, and acted upon. At the same time erosion control though fencing and planting is another key method embraced to take care of our land.
Other activities include cactus control where cactus injecting guns are made available to landholders to enable targeted control on their land. Another important aspect to the group’s actions is monitoring biodiversity by both large and small landholders alike. The commencement of a bird monitoring program will give keen birders within the group another interesting project to be involved in and provide encouragement to members to take an even greater interest in the wildlife and overall health of their properties.
Looking to the future, the group is expanding its involvement with the Baringhup Primary School, further enhancing the Farming for Sustainable Soils project, and enabling acknowledgement of the Dja Dja Wurrung as the first owners of this land. They also support the Revive the Loddon Project on the Loddon River reserve, where the group has built a community BBQ and maintained plantings.
Contact details for the group are on the ‘Contact a Group‘ page of the website.