Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

Now, what’s this about Gough’s Range?

Posted on 10 October, 2014 by fobif

Not too many people visit Gough’s Range State Forest, roughly midway between Welshman’s Reef and Maldon. This small [161 ha] forest will be getting a few extra visitors in the 2016-17 management burning season, however. It’s down for a DEPI ‘Landscape Management Burn’. The intention of managers is

‘To provide an irregular mosaic of areas of fuel reduction which will complement works in adjacent fire management zones and can assist in ecological resilience and forest regeneration.’

Cairn Curran Reservoir, from the western edge of the Gough’s Range forest. Modestly interesting views are to be had from many parts of this bush.

We’ve been informed that the Department intends a burn coverage of 30-50% of the declared area; further, in its response to the Muckleford Forest submission to the Fire Operations Plan, DEPI has said that ‘every planned burn’ gets an environmental assessment beforehand—so we’ll be keen to see how the managers go about assessing the values of this modest forest, and protecting those values.

It’s not Everest, but this chocolate lily is still a trial for the small beetle: Gough’s Range, October 2014

FOBIF will be running one of its monthly walks in the Goughs Range forest in winter next year.

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Fire operations: some answers

Posted on 6 October, 2014 by fobif

FOBIF has received a response to its submission on the Fire Operations Plan from Andrew Koren, DEPI program manager for planned burning in this region.

In brief, DEPI has responded to our concerns with the following points:

1. The Government is committed to increasing its planned burning; at the same time it is developing a strategic risk management approach for ‘prioritising fuel management’. It doesn’t seem to see the contradiction between these two approaches.

2. The statewide 5% target is being pursued. However, ‘Murray Goldfields is capped at approximately 4% or 14,000 hectares, this in recognition of the unique vegetation that occurs in the Murray Goldfields district.’

3. We can’t see burn plans because they’re subject to change based on weather conditions and other factors.

4. The pine plantations are Hancock business, but DEPI ‘is aware’ that Hancocks ‘undertake fire management works’.

5. DEPI is keen to cooperate on the matter of weed infestations.

6. On specific burns: the very large Gower Cemetery Rd fire, in the Muckleford Forest, has been taken out of the current plan, presumably to be done later; the Dunn’s Reef fire, also in the Muckleford forest, ‘is not all planned for treatment’; and DEPI is willing to discuss the Gough’s Range fire.

FOBIF will be following up all these points.

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‘Mosses of dry forests…’it’s easier to buy now

Posted on 6 October, 2014 by fobif

FOBIF has opened a Paypal account to make it easier to buy its field guide to mosses of dry forests online. We did this to facilitate orders from overseas, but the system will make it easier for locals to buy the book. For more details, click on the icon at right.

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Here we go again

Posted on 6 October, 2014 by fobif

The cup moth [Doratifera] grub is at it again: the damage perhaps a bit patchier than the last infestation. The grub is pretty undiscriminating in its appetite, but appears to prefer stringybarks [Eucalyptus macrohyncha] in our area. The Bendigo Field Naturalists Eucalypt guide notes that this tree ‘is subject to annual, often very severe defoliation by the caterpillars of the cup moth. This places considerable stress on the trees, but almost certainly has its compensations in the form of reduced waterloss through reduced leaf area during summer, and improved nutrient recycling…’

The patchiness of the present infestation can be seen in the two photos below, taken less than two kilometres apart. In the first, the Maldon Historic Reserve seems completely untouched:

Tatt Town track, October 5: the trees are virtually untouched by the cup moth caterpillar.

In the second, a couple of kilometres down the road, the devastation is clear. The second photo is taken in bush with heavier concentrations of stringybarks:

A couple of kilometres down the same track, on the same day: bushland with greater numbers of stringybarks is heavily defoliated.

How well does the bush recover from these infestations? Trees trashed a couple of years ago seem, on the whole, to have gotten over the attacks. On the other hand, our understanding of these matters is limited. As forestry researchers noted [in Australian Forestry June 2010, in reference to similar outbreaks in Gippsland early this century,

‘The cause of the outbreaks by Doratifera spp. is uncertain because of insufficient knowledge concerning their lifecycle. While climatic factors are likely triggers, other factors such as eucalypt host susceptibility, foliage nutritional status, altitude, forest type,

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A budding group of springtime learners

Posted on 3 October, 2014 by fobif

A group with representatives from six families heard Ern Perkins give an introduction to one of his favourite places to visit and study in Castlemaine at Kaweka Reserve on Sunday 28th September.

The group of parents and small children, aged 2-6, were then on task with the Local Flora Guide to see which species they could spot and were given instruction on how to use a hand lens by local co-author of Mosses of Dry Forests in South Eastern Australia, Cassia Read.

Cassia demonstrating how moss wakes up.

Cassia also introduced the children to the pleasure of using their stomachs as agents for biological control by eating their way through the Briza maxima and illustrated response to changes in weather conditions as she ‘woke up’ some moss with a pour from her drink bottle.

A well earned cuppa and snack break half way through energised the group for the second half of the walk with parents able to socialise and make acquaintance with other likeminded families while the kids played in the pretty spring bush.

Thanks to Ern and Cassia for their help in introducing the group to this patch of bush in an increasingly urban Castlemaine.

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Risk management vs random burning: a reply

Posted on 30 September, 2014 by fobif

We’ve received a prompt reply to the questions we put to the Environment and the Bushfire Response Ministers yesterday.

Readers will remember that our question was simple:

–the government is trumpeting its achievement in setting out to burn 5% of public land every year.
–at the same time it’s developing a risk management policy, which essentially implies that you only burn where it’s really needed.
–so, how do these contradictory approaches mesh with each other?

The reply from the Minister’s office doesn’t answer the question, but it does clarify one thing:

‘The Strategic Bushfire Management Plans are currently being finalised and will highlight the Coalition Government’s commitment to delivering a fuel reduction program that is focused on reducing the risk of bushfires to lives, property and assets, in addition to implementing a hectare based target recommended by the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission.’

In other words, the Government is going to implement both a risk based and a target policy–at the same time. This is in spite of the fact that the Royal Commission Implementation Monitor recommends the second be reconsidered in favour of the first. Bafflingly, the ministerial reply ends by approvingly quoting the Monitor, as if he is in favour of such an incoherent approach.

Here’s the Government’s letter in full. Readers can make up their own minds about its argument:

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Yee–Haah! On the runaway horse!

Posted on 29 September, 2014 by fobif

The Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Bushfire Response, Kim Wells, has today issued a press release on the State Government’s achievements in planned burning. The release is mainly concerned with publicising increased cooperation between DEPI and the CFA; it includes an obligatory electioneering flavour in the form of comparisons between the CFA budget under Labor and the budget under the Coalition—naturally in the latter’s favour.

All of this can be taken on its merits. What is of interest to us, however, is the tremendous satisfaction the Minister expresses in the burning program: “The Coalition Government’s planned burning achievements last year reached a 30 year high and over four years has carried out planned burns more than 700,000 hectares of public land.’

Although this sentence is spectacularly ungrammatical, we get the gist: area burned is what the Government is proud of.

Representatives of FOBIF and numerous other enviro groups are gearing up to attend a DEPI ‘Strategic Bushfire Management Reform & Environment Workshop’ in Creswick on October 10. The agenda for this workshop includes sessions on planning, risk management and ecological monitoring.

At the moment, all of these worthy activities are subject the five per cent target promoted in the press release. This policy effectively decrees that no matter what your research finds, you’ll still burn the same area of land around the state. Until the Government [and the Opposition] get off this runaway horse, all the research and monitoring in the world will end up where it has often gone in the past: into a dusty cupboard, never to be seen again.

We’ve written the letter below to the Minister asking for him clarify how the target sits with risk management. Our letter was forwarded to the Environment Minister, suggesting that the two ministers aren’t actually coordinating their activities. We’ll publish the reply when it comes:

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Reducing your weeds may reduce your rates

Posted on 29 September, 2014 by fobif

Volunteers-learning-to-inject-Wheel-Cactus-weeds-near-Cairn-Curran.

Volunteers injecting wheel cactus on a property near Cairn Curran. Photo courtesy of Tarrangower Cactus Control Group.

The Mount Alexander Shire Council offers subsidised rates to landholders who have undertaken environmental protection works on their property. It is a yearly rate reduction on properties when the owners can demonstrate that they have completed eligible environmental work activities.

As well, our Council has recently introduced a rate rebate for landholders who have a conservation covenant on their land under either Trust for Nature or Section 69 Conservation Forests and Land Act 1987. The Shire currently has approximately 45 ratepayers who have already chosen to enter into a permanent legal agreement under these schemes. They are managing and protecting 558 hectares of high quality native vegetation across the municipality.

The Council’s Healthy Environment Team are the people to ring for further information on these initiatives (5471 1700). You can also find out more on the Counci’s website.

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Scaling the ‘mini Monk of Muckleford’

Posted on 23 September, 2014 by fobif

It was a glorious, warm, sunny day when FOBIF walkers took off from the poppet head mine in the Muckleford State Forest and Muckleford Conservation Reserve for the September walk. The mine has now been opened up so that you can stand on top of the grate and look down into the drop below. DEPI is in the middle of completing an information sign board.

The group meandered through the ironbarks, up to the ‘mini monk of Muckleford’ to have a break. Floral displays included plenty of gorse bitter pea, pink bells, pink fingers, wax lip orchids, common beard heath, and erect guinea flower. The lunch break featured the company of a well-put-upon shingleback, who was trying to get some rest in the sun.
We’re sorry we missed the climate change rally, but we were busy engaging with the Muckleford forest.

The following photos were taken by Noel Young. Click to enlarge.

: A Cup Moth larvae at work – millions are destroying Eucalypt leaves over considerable areas. While having lunch it was raining larvae from the tree above.

: The Mine adit

: Gold Dust Wattle in the Ironbarks

: Green Forester Moth

: Masses of Gorse Bitter-pea

: Jacky Lizard

: Blue Caladenia Orchid – Cyanicula caerulea

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The time to get out is NOW

Posted on 21 September, 2014 by fobif

It’s always a good time to get out for a stroll in our bushlands: all seasons have their appeal. Arguably, though, this year seems to be peaking right now for orchids and wildflowers. Given that we’ve had a pretty dry few weeks, the peak might be short–so, to repeat the old commercial slogan: Season ends soon! Act now!