Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

VEAC has released its final recommendations on the Central West forest. The full report with the executive summary and related documents can be found here.

The final recommendations take account of responses to the draft, issued last year: but the changes made in this document do not alter the main thrust of the draft. A significant increase in protected areas is recommended by VEAC, including a new national park in the Wombat, and inclusion of part of the Wellsford forest in the Greater Bendigo National Park.

This summary of the recommendations is taken from the VNPA:

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This year’s FOBIF exhibition will be a general one about our local Box-Ironbark Forests.

TOGS Cafe in Castlemaine will host the exhibition in September and October 2019.   It will be our 6th photo exhibition at TOGS and our 10th overall.

So if you have a favourite photo/s of flora and/or flora in our region send them along to FOBIF: info@fobif.org.au  There is plenty of time to take new photos: the closing date for the submission of photos is not till 19th August.

We will place all photos in a designated album on the FOBIF Flickr site. A FOBIF sub-committee will then select approximately 18 photos to be printed and framed for the exhibition. As you can see from the wildlife photos below there is plenty of scope for variety.

If your photo is selected, as well as being included in the exhibition, you will receive a free copy of your photo.

Guidelines

1. Photo/s of Box-Ironbark flora and fauna within the Mount Alexander region. 
2. A small file size is fine for Flickr but the photo will need to be at least 3 mg to be printed and included in the exhibition. (At this stage only send files under 1mg).
3. Include the photo’s location, date, identification of flora and fauna and any extra information you have about the phot0.

Some of this year’s photos on our FOBIF Flickr page.

And don’t forget that entries to the Eucalypt photo competition run by the Threatened Species Recovery Hub close on 22 July 2019.

Local frog expert, Elaine Bayes, has forwarded the latest information on Australia’s first National Frog Count:

In just one year, FrogID has generated the equivalent of 13% of all frog records collected in Australia over the last 240 years. The submitted recordings have resulted in over 66,000 validated calls and detected 175 of Australia’s 240 known native frogs. The data has informed scientists on the impacts of climate change and pollution on Australia’s frogs including the first evidence of the decline in Sydney of the Australian Green Tree Frog; the spread of the invasive Cane Toad; and information on the breeding populations of 28 globally threatened and 13 nationally threatened frog species.

Location of all frog records for the first year of FrogID in Australia.

More on the results of frog survey can be found here and information about all Australian Museum’s citizen science projects can be found here. 

It has a pretty name, and a pretty flower—after all, it was introduced into this country as a garden plant. Now it’s one of the worst invasive weeds in the country, a menace to the environment and agriculture. You guessed it: it’s Bridal Creeper.

This invasive climbing herb with a very extensive tuberous root system can cause huge problems as it climbs on and chokes understorey species: it’s capable of completely blanketing out all other plants.

Harmless looking plant, which can be a suffocating nuisance: dig it up! And make sure you get it all…Photo: John Ellis

And it’s starting to emerge in the bush now.  If you come across a small isolated plant the best method of removal is to dig it up – though you have to make sure you dig deep enough to get all the tubers: if you don’t, the plant is tenacious at coming back.  Hang the offending weed in another bush or branch so that the tuber dries out and so that other people walking in the area know that it is an unwanted plant. They might be encouraged to use the same method of removal if they come across one.

We owe a thanks to all those generous people who have been digging this pest plant up over the years through our local bushland (especially Kalimna). What would the bush look like if it had been allowed to run rampant?

For more information on this weed and its control check here

And if you want to see what Bridal Creeper can do when it gets out of control, grit your teeth and have a look here.