Aerial flight - Farming for Sustainable Soils

The Salisbury West and Mt Korong Landcare Farming for Sustainable Soils group undertook aerial monitoring of their area on the 19th of October.  There were 3 flights, enabling 30 people from the group to view the Landcare efforts across the landscape. The flight departed from Bendigo and included a sweep down to Laanecoorie, then followed the Loddon River north past Bridgewater up to the Serpentine Creek and a circle out around the Fernihurst Weir. The flight concluded with a sweep past Mt Korong.

The monitoring flight looked at the initiatives of the group including the works on planting trees, putting in corridors across the agricultural landscape and widening the riparian area of the Loddon River. Also under observation was the effect of increasing ground cover between crops. The vantage point from above enabled a clear view of any exposed soils in paddocks. The importance of roadside conservation reserves and riparian vegetation corridors in the Loddon Plains landscape was also very pronounced from above.

The ideal flying conditions made for an insightful and enjoyable flight.

Photos: Plane at Bendigo airport (top), Loddon River and Serpentine Creek (bottom).

Friends of Terrick Terrick National Park Open Weekend

The Friends of Terrick Terrick National Park held their annual Open Weekend of the park on the 5th-7th of October. The weekend was part of the 2012 Naturally Loddon Festival.

Over 40 people attended the weekend at various stages, with some new memberships among the members renewing theirs again for 2012-2013. 

Based at the historic Davies Homestead, attendees were treated to various talks on the Friday evening, including Helen Stevens local history presentation.

Weekend activities included the removal of old animal exclusion plots and fallen fences, weeding around the meeting complex, preparing tree guards to be installed later this month, and seedlings planted last year were checked for their progress.

A total of 27mm of rain fell over the weekend, which resulted in the program being slightly modified from expected and may have kept attendance down. However the weekend was still a success despite the damp weather!

Congratulations to the Friends of Terrick Terrick National Park committee and volunteers who put a tremendous amount of effort into organising the event each year.

Photos by Jill Millsom: Retrieving animal exclusion plots (top), Helen Stevens local history talk (middle), wildflower display (bottom).

FTLA Secrets to Successful Groups Training - Bendigo

The Farm Tree & Landcare Association are running a "Secrets to Successful Groups" training session in Bendigo on Thursday 29th of November 2012.

The Department of Sustainability and Environment is supporting ten sessions across Victoria to assist Landcarers to improve the capacity and health of their groups and networks.

Each session will cover several topics out from the following:

• Legal duties and governance
• Employment and employer responsibilities
• Effective decision-making
• Health and Safety
• Manageing the books
• Volunteer recruitment and succession

Sessions are open to all Landcare groups, Friends of groups and anyone else in the community involved in Landcare. The session is free with lunch and refreshments provided!

The flyer can be found here.

To RSVP email ftla@vff.org.au or call 03 9207 5527 and include your top 3 preferred topics.

Field Trip to Salisbury West and the Loddon Foothills

15 boarded the bus at Bridgewater for the tour of Salisbury West and the Loddon Foothills as part of the Naturally Loddon Festival on 30 September. The tour showed the works of the Salisbury West Landcare Group fitting with the festival aims to promote the natural environment, biodiversity and cultural heritage in the Loddon Shire. The group heard commentary from local knowledge brokers Jean McClymont, Phil Dyson and John Penny.

Tourers were treated to beautiful sites around the area including the Loddon River, Serpentine Weir, and Salisbury West, as well as the significant Indigenous Cultural Heritage Site at Powlett Swamp.

The remarkable achievements of the Landcare group were plain to see (in shelterbelts, green haystacks and in fencing of the Loddon River) but also more nuanced in the works done in regards to soil sustainability, farm works, crop and pasture rotations.

At one point a snappy snake gave the group a fright, reminding us that spring has arrived in our natural wonderland.

Many thanks to Jean McClymont for organising the trip and to the State Government Victorian Landcare Grants and the North Central Catchment Management Authority for funds to run a most enjoyable day. 

Thanks also to the Loddon Shire for promotion and running of the Naturally Loddon Festival.

Photos (click to enlarge): Salisbury West stop (top left), Paddock talk with John Penny (top right), Serpentine Weir (bottom left), Loddon River (bottom centre), Powlett Swamp (bottom right).