Members of the YAN and Goulburn-FROGS nursery managers group were provided with an overview of the YAN Climate Ready project at the Yass Landcare Community nursery on 24 September. This project is close to providing each of the four YAN nursery managers with seed for either a Eucalyptus, Acacia, understory shrub or perennial herb from the local region plus additional "admixture" seed which has been sourced from Greening Australia from hotter drier bio-regions which we expect our region to reflect in 2030 to 2070, due to a changing climate.
After some discussion each YAN nursery manager agreed to sow and manage 600 pots of local and 600 pots of 'admixture' for the same plant. This equates to two tables in each of the YAN Landcare nurseries. Each nursery will manage the seedlings until they are ready to be distributed to regional Landcare members to plant at pre-agreed trial sites, after good rains in Autumn-Winter 2020.
On behalf of the YAN Climate Ready team which includes Gill Hall and Sue McIntyre from Murrumbateman Landcare, Elizabeth Goodfellow from Bowning-Bookham Landcare and Kath McGuirk who is representing Yass Landcare Nursery and YAN - each nursery in the Yass Area Network is progressing the sowing and management of a specific plant which is detailed below:
The Yass Landcare Community nursery will be sowing Eucalyptus melliodora - Yellow Box;
The Bango Bowing-Bookham Landcare nursery will be sowing Aacia deanei subspecies paucijuga - Green Wattle;
The Wattle Valley Bowning-Bookham Landcare nursery will be sowing Dodonaea viscoa augustissima - Slender Hop Bush;
and the Murrumbateman Landcare nursery will be sowing and managing Chrysocephalum semi-papposum - Clustered Everlasting Daisy.
Each of the YAN Landcare nurseries will need more volunteers to assist them sow and grow these plants on behalf of the YAN Climate Ready project so I hope that when future sowing dates are advertised for any of the four YAN Landcare nurseries that you consider assisting - especially with the sometimes labour intensive task of filling trays of clean pots with native potting mix and accurately labeling each tray. Refer to Eventbrite events within the YAN newsletter for date and location details.
The YAN Climate Ready team will be providing more background on this project at the 2019 YAN AGM which is scheduled for Saturday 16 November.
This small group of YAN - Goulburn FROGS nursery managers also visited the Yarralumla Nursery on 1 October to confirm how the professionals store and label their native seed supplies. This group also plan to have a native seed collecting day at the Goulburn FROGS site sometime in December which will be advertised in the YAN newsletter.
Clustered Everlasting Daisies (Chrysocephalum semi-papposum)