Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

Poverty Gully Burning [1]: what’s it for?

Posted on 6 February, 2013 by fobif

The Poverty Gully management burn [CAS 008] was a Zone 1 fuel reduction exercise covering 99.6 hectares on the Castlemaine town side of the Dingo Park road, north of Poverty Gully Track. It was conducted late last year.

The Arthur’s Track burn [CAS 107] is a Zone 2 exercise covering 243 ha on the south side of the Poverty Gully Track. The two burns, CAS 008 and 107, are contiguous, but the Arthur’s Track exercise has been broken up: an area was done in November, and we assume the rest will be finished in Autumn. This is to take account of the presence in this zone of Castlemaine Spider Orchids, and Eltham Copper Butterfly colonies.

Fire fungus growing in the ash of the Poverty Gully fuel reduction burn. Zone 1 Asset protection burns are for fuel reduction only, but it's worth asking if the safety effect could be achieved with less environmental damage.

The purpose of Zone 1 reduction burns is fuel reduction to ‘provide the highest level of localised protection to human life and property.’ According to DSE’s Code of Practice fuel treatment ‘will be carried out through a combination of planned burning and other methods such as mowing, slashing or vegetation removal.’ The aim of the operation is to remove or substantially reduce surface and suspended fuels: in effect, we’re told, a burn aims to cover 90 % of the parcel in question.

There is no provision for ecological management in Zone 1 prescriptions, and DSE officers have frankly admitted that these are sacrificial zones, ecologically speaking. In particular, it’s envisaged that these areas can be burned every five years: the Tolerable Fire Interval for bushland in our region is at least ten years: that is, for bush to be able to regenerate fully it needs at least ten years between even mild fires. The system, therefore, must inevitably produce an impoverished environment. The only concession is that the Code of Practice directs that ‘the department will seek to moderate the negative impact as far as practicable.’ This is the price the community pays for safety.

Continue reading →

Posted in Fire Management, News | Comments Off

Have your say about creek flooding

Posted on 4 February, 2013 by fobif

A public meeting to get community ideas on the flood problem in our local creeks will be held on Monday February 18 at 6.30 pm at the Castlemaine Town Hall.

The meeting is being held by the Catchment Management Authority, the Shire Council and GHD, a firm of water industry experts. It’s part of the process of developing a flood management plan for Castlemaine, Campbell’s Creek and Chewton. The process has been funded by the State Government in response to recent flood events.

Readers will remember that there was some controversy during recent floods about whether vegetation along creeks increases water levels. Our posts on this can be found here and here.

Posted in News | Comments Off

Garden birds in Castlemaine

Posted on 2 February, 2013 by fobif

Damian Kelly has contributed this article on birds in his Castlemaine garden. To see previous posts by Damian on garden birds, click here and here.

This summer has seen a much reduced number and range of birds in my garden in Castlemaine. Honeyeater numbers in particular are well down. However, by providing water we still get a reasonable variety of birds in the garden.

The Blue-faced Honeyeater seems to be getting more common in this area. A small number have been resident in Castlemaine continuously since at least early Autumn. They can be seen along the street trees in Mostyn and Lyttleton streets, as well as in gardens in this area. They have a distinctive call.

Blue-faced Honeyeater

Another less regular visitor is the White-eared Honeyeater. It has a strident call that can be heard long before you see the bird. Although not common around town, you will see them if you add water bowls in protected spots in your garden.

White-eared Honeyeater

I like watching the Yellow-faced Honeyeaters – they are quite curious and you can often get up close to them. This one is having a good preen after bathing in a water bowl on a hot day.

Yellow-faced Honeyeaters

To me, the Eastern Spinebill is one of the most appealing of the honeyeaters – it can hover to get at flowers and is partial to a range of natives as well as introduced plants. Quite a sight when you get to see views like this.

Eastern Spinebill

Although not often seen in gardens, Woodswallows are often to be seen in groups in the sky hawking for insects. They have a soft, chattering call that comes from on high. Here is a male and female White-browed Woodswallow pair.

Woodswallows

Posted in Nature Observations, News | 1 Comment

Rosella fledgings display their colours

Posted on 31 December, 2012 by fobif

Several Eastern Rosella fledgling recently fell out of a nest box in John and Marie’s yard at Golden Point. They landed in saltbush below where the adults fed them for a week before they finally flew off.

One of the Rosella fledglings. Photo by John Ellis, December 2012

A week or two previously Doug Ralph also discovered young Rosellas. This time they had stayed in their nest box.

Photo by Doug Ralph, December 2012

To see even younger Eastern Rosellas have a look a Geoff Park’s site here and here. In this brilliant sequence of photos, Geoff has recorded the transformation of chicks from nestling to fledging stage over a 25 day period.

Posted in Nature Observations | Comments Off

Comeback

Posted on 15 December, 2012 by fobif

The cup moth caterpillars have come in their millions and munched away, but it seems that they’ve gone to pursue their careers as moths, and the bush is responding accordingly. Green shoots are appearing everywhere, and things aren’t looking anywhere near as desolate as they were a month or so ago.