Yass Area Network of Landcare Groups (YAN), together with the Boorowa and Hovells Creek Landcare groups, was recently recognised for outstanding leadership in climate change and sustainable land management. Nominated together, the three groups were finalists for a 2023/2024 NSW Landcare Award in the new Climate Innovations category.
The three groups co-delivered the highly successful Climate Conversation event at the Memorial Hall in Yass in 2018. Over 220 people turned up to hear top speakers on the science of climate change and how rural communities can make a difference.
The 2018 event helped to propel YAN’s nascent Climate Ready Revegetation Project. In essence, the project aims to make sure that the plants grown in the YAN nurseries and used in revegetation have the best chance of surviving well into the future so they can contribute to biodiverse and resilient landscapes. Over 50 volunteers were involved in the early stages, in setting up the project, undertaking climate and plant analysis, growing plants in the Landcare nurseries, hosting planting trials, and more. This project is on-going, and recently secured four years of funding from the NSW Environmental Trust.
YAN’s neighbouring groups in Hovells Creek and Boorowa, jointly nominated with YAN for the Landcare award, have similarly made significant impacts on the ground. For instance, with funding from the Australian Government's Future Drought Fund, Hovells Creek Landcare was able to provide training to their members on the technologies available to make informed management decisions to mitigate the effects of drought.
The two other finalists for the Climate Innovations award were the Mulloon Institute and the Wallabadah Community Association. The winner was announced on Monday 3rd June at the NSW Landcare Awards in Sydney, an event sponsored by the Australian Government and Landcare Australia, and co-delivered by Local Land Services and Landcare NSW. The inaugural award went to the well-deserving Wallabadah Community Association which has delivered 19 projects over five years focusing on water management.
South East NSW was extremely well represented at this year’s awards! Besides YAN/Boorowa/Hovells Creek, Greg Thompson from Shoalhaven Landcare was Highly Commended in the Individual Landcarer Award category, as was Janet Heffernan from Gunning District Landcare for the Women in Landcare award. The Kanangra-Boyd to Wyangala Link was a finalist for the Community Partnerships award, and Mandi Stevenson received a Landcare NSW Honorary Life Membership.
We extend our sincere congratulations to all finalists and winners.
