Hurrah! An amazing effort over the weekend from so many people resulted in about 1200 trees and shrubs planted and guarded and watered on 4 properties. So congratulations to all involved, and a big thank you from the landholders and of course the environment and all who depend upon it (ie everyone, whether they know it or not). While not blisteringly hot, the weather was kind to us, and the rain on Monday was fantastic. Along with the hard work (made easier and more fun by working in teams) lots of socialising happened with lunches, afternoon teas, and another delicious home cooked meal at Bookham Hall on Saturday night and a BBQ and bonfire on Sunday night courtesy of the Armours to wrap up the weekend.

As I was finishing off the last part on our place on Monday (in the rain), I reflected on the stark contrast between solitary and group efforts in tasks like this, and I know which one I prefer!

A special thank you to Elizabeth for bringing all of this into being. Your endless energy and positivity is an inspiration to us all.

Cheers
Linda
President
Bowning-Bookham Districts Landcare

The Bowning and Bookham Districts Landcare Group invites you and your family to join our landcare family for the June long weekend, from noon 7 June to 10 am on 10 June, to plant little trees on our farms. Plant trees, have fun and make a difference.

Bring the kiddies to the Great Landcare Long Weekend for some dirt and fun - and camping if you want (or not if you don't). Tickets start from $25 a person or $35 a group/family. Plant trees, have fun and make a difference.

Get tickets at Eventbrite (search for Great Landcare Long Weekend, in Bowning) or on our Facebook page Bowning-Bookham Landcare Group.

More information about the weekend

How will you know whether your work to improve the environmental condition of sites, such as changing timing of grazing or stock numbers to enhance the recovery of native plants, is actually making a difference? It's important to know whether you are on track, and knowing that sooner rather than later can help you adjust your management and try new things if necessary to achieve a better result.

Jacqui Stol, senior experimental researcher at CSIRO, talks about how landholders can measure the impact of changing their conservation, tree planting and grazing management practices. This system can be used to monitor changes in biodiversity over a period of two or three years. 

Go to the Landcare Portal to hear the interview

Last week 9 of us gathered at Keith's property, Billa Burra Burra, to collect seed from several of his trees for propogating in our nurseries. We collected seed capsules as well as samples of bark, leaves, buds. Elizabeth and Mark made notes about the location (with GPS coordinates), what was growing nearby including other trees of the same species, and the health and other features of the tree. Maren took photos of the tree and surrounding landscape, the bark and leaves and the seed capsules. After the collection, we had dinner before heading home. We collected the seeds in boxes and bags, and stored the notes with them.

Next morning, Maren returned to spread the seeds out on sheets to dry in Keith's garage.

Later Maren sorted out the photos and the samples, which we hope will help us learn about identifying trees in future.

We're trying several methods of preserving the samples: storing them in a muslin bag (as they turn mouldy if stored in plastic), laminating some leaves (we can't laminate anything thicker than 0.4 mm though) and using clear adhesive plastic (book covering plastic) to attach some twigs, leaves and the smaller capsules and buds to cardboard.

One lesson learned from this exercise is that the note-takers should note the start and end time of collecting from each tree, and/or the photographer should turn on GPS if available on the camera, to help match the photos to the samples later.

The photos will be uploaded to Google Drive along with details of the plants (probably in a spreadsheet). We decided on a naming convention for the files, which is species name, date of collection, property code and original photo number - for example, Brachychiton_populneus3Feb2019BBB0043 (BBB is the property code for Billa Burra Burra). We considered using tags but although tags are a great way to organise photos for a collection, the programs and apps that use them don't always talk to each other.