At the AGM on Monday July 11, Public Officer Chris Morris announced that the following nominations had been received before the meeting:
President: Marie Jones
Vice President: Nev Cooper
Secretary: Bernard Slattery
Treasurer: Bronwyn Silver
Committee Members: Frank Panter, Kylie McIndoe
As the number of nominated candidates equalled the number of positions on the committee, according to the Constitution, the above were declared elected.
The rather sad sign below is a marker on Morgan’s Track Chewton of the Ecological Thinnings Trial conducted by Parks Victoria beginning in 2003.
Despondent sign at Morgan's Track, July 2011: we hope that ongoing research on this trial will prove valuable. We have been assured that the research continues. Photo by Bronwyn Silver
The trial was proposed by the Environment Conservation Council when it recommended the establishment of new Box Ironbark reserves in 2001. The intention is to experimentally aim at the restoration of a pre white settlement forest structure by strategically thinning selected plots in the aim of getting a woodland of more widely spaced, larger trees, and a healthier, more diverse understory. In fact, our woodlands are on the whole gradually thinning themselves as weaker trees die: so the trial is an effort to speed up the work of Nature.
FOBIF did not oppose the trials, even though we thought that in our region they were misconceived, and the money and resources could have been better spent elsewhere—on weed control, for example. We did concede, however, that the accompanying monitoring and research could prove very valuable for our understanding of these ecosystems. For a more detailed account of our views, you can read an item from our 2008 newsletter here.
FOBIF members did a prowl around the Morgan’s site on July 8. This area has always been rich in wildflowers, and it looks like the coming spring will not disappoint. Even in the dead of winter there’s plenty to see, as the pictures show.
Even in the dead of winter, there's plenty to see at Morgan's Track. Photos by Bronwyn Silver, July 2011
And the effect of the trial? Monitoring up to 2008 cautiously suggested that the thinning had up to that point been positive in encouraging understorey diversity.
We have received a response from the Mount Alexander Shire to our budget submission on the appointment of a ‘Natural resource officer’ [see post June 3 ]. We had expressed concern that the position was a six month only appointment. Council informs us that ‘it is intended that the position will be for at least twelve months and will be reviewed annually during the budget process. There is only provision for six months salary in the Budget for 2011/12 as the position is expected to commence in January 2012.’
One feature of the relatively good rains we’ve had in the last year or so has been the great shows of lichens.
Lichens are partnerships between a fungus and an alga. The algal partner enables the organism to use photosynthesis to produce carbohydrate, something a fungus can’t do by itself. They are maybe the most widespread life form on the planet, flourishing from the polar regions to the tropics. Being sensitive to pollution, however, they’re not so common in cities.
There are over 20,000 species of lichens world wide, and 3,000 in Australia. Sometimes they just seem to be a colour on a rock, as in this orange Caloplaca sp:
Caloplaca sp, Poverty Gully water race, near Castlemaine: crustose lichens can seem to be simple discolorations on rock. Photo: Bernard Slattery
Caloplaca is a crustose lichen: you can’t see its undersurface because it’s completely encrusted onto its substrate. But maybe the commonest and most widespread Australian genus of lichen is the Xanthoparmelia, a foliose lichen: that is, it grows more or less flat to the ground in sheets, but not entirely attached [though sometimes it seems pretty tightly stuck to the ground]. Australia has 300 species of this genus, of which over 200 are endemic.
We’ve all seen one or other species of Xanthoparmelia. At the moment, they’re all over our bushland.
Here’s one, from the Newstead Cemetery:
Xanthoparmelia, Newstead cemetery: the grey green, yellow green or grey brown colours of this species can be seen on rocks, roof tiles and even roadways all over the shire.
And here’s another, on a bottle in Chewton:
Lichens can grow nearly anywhere, but they are sensitive to air pollution. Photo by Bronwyn Silver, 15 October 2010.
Of course, things are never as simple as they might be. If you see a greenish, foliose lichen growing on live or dead trees [and, at the moment, it’s hard not to see them–they’re all over the place] it is most likely to be the genus Flavoparmelia. Xanthoparmelia grows mostly on rock or rock like surfaces.
Views can be a wonderful experience, but a double edged one: a house may offer a magnificent view of a nearby hill, but a person sitting on that hill may not be pleased by having to look at the house in question.
Aeroplanes offer magnificent views: but people on the ground who have to put up with their intrusiveness and noise possibly won’t be impressed that the passengers in the sky are getting ‘the experience of a lifetime’, as one helicopter company describes its scenic flights over the Port Campbell National Park.
The Strathbogie Shire is facing a different version of this problem, in relation to the largest tract of Box Ironbark bushland in Victoria. Skydive Nagambie, which claims to be ‘Australia’s premier skydiving company’, is proposing to set up an airfield 3 km from the Heathcote-Graytown National Park, in the vicinity of Mount Black.
It’s hard to believe that planes would be dropping parachutists over the park, to fall into trees: but the prospect of up to 20 flights a day on up to 215 days in the year even close to the park is not impressing some local naturalists. Objections to the application have been made by the Trust for Nature and local environmentalists. For more info, the Strathbogie Shire website is at www.strathbogie.vic.gov.au, and local objectors can be contacted via rachelots@hotmail.com
White Everlasting Daisy (Chrysocephalum baxteri)
Slime Mould
Dunns Reef
Tall Greenhoods
Gnat Orchid
Blue Caladenia
Downy Grevillea (Grevillea alpina)
Coliban river upstream of the Gibbons bridge
Coliban river upstream of the Gibbons bridge.
Coliban river upstream of the Gibbons bridge.
Sailors Gully ruin
Loddon River near Vaughan
Cortinarius archeri
Mycena subgalericulata
Cortinarius rotundisporus
Cortinarius cystidiocatenatus,
Ramaria sp.
Pink Heath
Mount Alexander
Mount Alexander
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