Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

After countless hours of work, residents are making progress towards eradicating Needle Grasses (stipoid weeds) in Castlemaine. Some previously infested areas now appear to be free of them, and many other areas have less than half of the original infestation.

Needle Grasses are introduced weeds that do great harm to natural ecosystems (especially grasslands) and to agricultural land.  If you love nature, eat and wear clothes, this affects you.

As well as Chilean Needle Grass (Nassella neesiana) – a Regionally Controlled noxious weed – 3 other Needle Grasses are in Castlemaine.  One of these, Cane Needle Grass (N. hyalina), is on a National Alert List of 28 Environmental Weeds.

There is an opportunity to help rid Castlemaine of these. Small working bees are held (mainly between October and March) to dig them out of roadsides, parks and a privately owned paddock.  If you volunteer to help, you will be shown how to identify them and to distinguish between different grasses.  Any amount of help, ranging from one hour to many, will be gratefully accepted.

The volunteer work complements paid work which was done with a Council Community Grant to Connecting Country during 2016-17.  FOBIF has applied for another Community Grant to continue this work in 2017-18. 

If you’d like to help, or would like more information, please phone Margaret on 5470 5072 between 7am and 7pm.

Dense infestation of mature Espartillo at the Pony Club in Castlemaine in 2014. Control work has now reduced the infestation to isolated seedlings.

You can find a good photo of Chilean Needle Grass  here and a good drawing and photo of Cane Needle Grass here.

Fungi expert and photographer, Alison Pouliot, is running her popular fungi workshops from April to June this year.

Most workshops will focus on the ‘curiosities and delights of fungi’. There are also several on  photographing fungi and these would be good for anyone interested in macro photography.

At least one workshop is booked out already so if you are interested book soon. All the information is here.

FOBIF has been successful in our application to the North Central Catchment Management Authority (NCCMA) for a Maintenance/ Start Up Grant through the Victorian Landcare Grants Program for $500. This money will go towards paying for public liability insurance for our group so we can continue to host our activities safely.

Local Landcare groups have shared in more than $204,000 to carry out environmental projects that improve biodiversity and land health across the catchment through this program.

This year, about 20 local groups project grant applications in the  region were successful. “Each year the quality of applicants is impressive, and this year was no exception,” North Central CMA Regional Landcare Coordinator Tess Grieves said.

Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio congratulated the local groups on their projects. “The Victorian Landcare program is an investment in our future and it’s fantastic to see these local groups receiving grants to support their important environmental projects,” she said.

Thanks to Tess and the team at the NCCMA for their work in making this successful application possible.

Tasmanian-based naturalist Sarah Lloyd has recently started a blog on Myxomycetes commonly known as slime moulds. Sarah was the guest speaker at the FOBIF AGM in 2015 where she shared her expertise on these often neglected organisms to a fascinated audience.

Sarah has been collecting and identifying slime moulds on her property in Northern Tasmania since 2010:

In the years since starting my research I have amassed over 1500 collections representing approximately 110 different species. This seems extraordinary given that all specimens have been collected within two kilometers of our house, and only 42 species had hitherto been officially recorded for Tasmania.

On the site and in her two recently published books on slime moulds* and Tasmanian native birds** Sarah uses plain language to draw in the general reader. And she is a terrific photographer. The two photos below from the blog are examples of her beautiful work.

So to find out everything you always wanted to know about slime moulds, click here and have a look at Sarah’s blog.

*  Where the slime mould creeps: the fascinating world of myxomycetes (2014)
** The feathered tribes of Van Diemen’s Land (2015)