National Tree Day was celebrated by Yass Landcare members by visiting a Landcare members property on Yass River Road to view historical tree lane plantings and paddock revegetation.
The weather was brisk but the walk was enlightening with information provided by Alison Elvin, Yass Landcare President.

The property visited has been managed by two experienced Landcare families over the last 30 years, and has seen it transform from open paddocks with 3 pine trees to the diversely vegetated property that it is today. One lesson discussed was how narrow 2-3 wide tree lanes, when mature, out competes shrubs and don't provide total wind protection, as the lowever shrub layer is missing.

One golden rule for a biodiverse tree lane is to have a ratio of 30% trees - Eucalyptus and 70% mid and low level shrubs - the Eucalyptus should be in the middle of the tree lane, larger shrubs on the middle and small shrubs as the outer row. This planting model ensures that heavy branches from trees and acacias don't fall on the fence. Another interesting planting on this property was group plantings of shrubs and trees - the different plant groupings are now providing different habitats for native birds and wildlife.

Happy National Tree day to you all from Yass Landcare

Landcare nursery volunteers and members of our YAN Climate Ready team visited the National Seed Bank at the Australian Botanical Gardens in Canberra on 10th May 2023. People who work at the site also collect seed across Australian National Parks and Australian reserves from coastal to alpine landscapes.

The major focus of the national seed bank is on conservation and research. Any germinated seed is given to the gardens nursery team to grow on. The seed bank has approximately 8,000 seed packages which includes 1,200 threatened species. The team managing this seed bank is small however they are supported by volunteers. Like Landcare, they are also subject to funding highs and lows.

One of the interesting processes was the x-raying of seeds to determine their viability - I expect you can identify that photo below. And I expect you can identify a group of Landcarers in a lab in one of the photos below.

YAN hosted two Fungi Discovery workshops over the weekend with the amazing Alison Pouliot. Both workshops were fully booked out and feedback from workshop participants was outstanding. Interest in fungi is definitely growing within our community. We are grateful to Landcare NSW and the Biodiversity Conservation Trust for supporting these workshops.

YAN is a member of the greater South East NSW Landcare region. It is great being part of a greater region and being able to listen to other Landcare projects at the 2023 Landcare muster. Some of the presentations included:

- Caring for Southern Pygmy Perch (Gunning)

- Superb Parrot case study (Upper Lachlan)

- Supporting endangered frogs and reptiles (Shoalhaven)

- Moving to make our paddocks ready for a changing climate (YAN)

- Partnerships for Koala Conservation across the SE (NSW Koala Strategy)

- Araluen Creek Restoration (Upper Deua Catchment)

- Can I get paid to plant trees? (Greening Australia)

- Strategies Workshop NSW Farmers and Boorowa

- Illawarra Intrepid Landcare

- Walbunja Rangers (Bateman's Bay LALC)

- Grasping Grazing groups (Upper Lachlan & Boorowa)

- Saving our Creek (Upper Shoalhaven)

- Regional Circularity Cooperative (Bega)

- Local Land Stewards (LLS)

- This goes with that Symbiotic Agriculture (Goulburn Mulwaree)

- Supporting Habitat Connectivity in Upper Lachlan

- BCT - Landcare Partnership (Biodiversity Conservation Trust)

- The way it was Restoring Shoalhaven Flood Plain (LLS)

- Living Landscapes (Bundanon Trust and Landcare Aus)

- Totally Cray Cray (LLS)

It is great to share and care for our Landscape