Yass Landcare Group organised a wonderful spotlight tour of Mulligan's Flat Nature Reserve on Thursday 1st April. We got to see a number of the re-introduced Bettongs and Bush Stone-curlews, as well as Brushtail Possums, Red-necked Wallabies, Swamp Wallabies, and other creatures. The spiders were delightful too - there were Wolf Spiders, one of which was carrying countless babies on its back - and a Leaf-curling Spider winching up a leaf. Our guide Tim was knowledgeable and enthusiastic, and everyone had a great time.

The YAN Climate Ready trial at Kangiara is in the ground after recent rains. A total of 528 plants have been planted:176 Eucalyptus melliodora, 176 Acacia deanei, and 176 Dodonaea viscosa.

The major trial sites at Kangiara and Murrumbateman are planted out in blocks with two inner circles (view the trial design here). At Kangiara we have 22 blocks with 2 circular plantings of 12 plants (see the layout here). In each block one circle has plants grown from locally sourced seed and the second circle has plants grown from hotter drier and cooler wetter regions known as our admix plant group. The Murrumbateman trial site will be planted in mid April.

Detailed background on the Climate Ready project is available at https://yan.org.au/projects/yan-climate-ready-project

What we love to see after 6 months in the Landcare plant nursery is plants planted in the paddock with a shovel. In this instance they are protected with biodegradable tree guards - a new experience for a YAN planting.

Climate Ready plants grown within the YAN Landcare nurseries were sorted this week in preparation for planting out into our Climate Ready major and supporting trial sites during Autumn 2021. Plants grown from seed from local regions, some of which included Captains Flat, Pierce's Creek, Yass, Bookham and Canberra were selected for each of the three plants: Eucalyptus melliodora (Yellow box), Acacia deanei (Dean's wattle) and Dodonaea viscosa (Hop bush).  

Plants grown from our admix sources are from hotter drier and colder wetter regions some of which included Henty, Moree, Coonabarabran, Lithgow, Urana, Hillston and Tarcutta.

There are a range of Climate Ready trial plants available for Landcare members if they wish to plant them during Autumn-Winter 2021.  Please watch for further updates on the YAN Facebook page.

The photos below include some of the Climate ready nursery team members plus a view of the root structure of a Eucalyptus melliodora grown from locally collected seed from the Yass region and admix seed from the Moree region.

The Climate Ready team within YAN mapped out the plant trial layout at the two trial sites which are located in Murrumbateman and Kangiara during January 2021.  Each trial site has at least twenty blocks which include plantings of Eucalyptus melliodora, Acacia deanei and Dodonaea viscosa. Further details on the trial layout can be viewed here. The planting layouts at the Murrumbateman and Kangiara properties can also be viewed.